CNN host Brianna Keilar burst into tears on live air Thursday as she read the names of several children killed in Ukraine.
Keilar first showed a photograph of 12-year-old Veronica, who died in an artillery shelling on her family’s vehicle. Two more young children, 5-week-old Vanyushka and 6-year-old Sofia, were killed by Russian soldiers who targeted their car.
“Their uncle listened to it on speaker phone. He said he heard the soldiers shoot their car to pieces. He told ITV that he heard 5-week-old Vanyushka crying,” Keilar said, tearing up. “He was clearly injured. He said Vanyushka cried for two minutes and then he went silent.”
Keilar then reported on the deaths of Serhiy Perebyinis’ wife, Tatiana, 18-year-old son Mykyta and 9-year-old daughter Alisa in March. The New York Times captured a photograph of the deceased lying on the curb after being killed by Russian forces as they attempted to escape the city of Irpin. (RELATED: CNN’s Erin Burnett Cries During Interview With Ukrainian Man Who Lost Family)
A 7-year-old girl named Alisa died with her grandfather as he used his body to shield her, Keilar said. A 10-year-old girl, her parents and younger brother were killed also as they attempted to escape Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. The segment played footage showed the funeral of a 2-year-old boy killed in his bed.
Keilar broke into tears as she reported the story of a 6-year-old who died in a hospital wearing unicorn pajamas after Russian forces shelled the building she stayed in. A pregnant woman injured at a bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol and her baby also died after a surgeon performed an emergency C-section.
A 15-year-old had her right leg amputated and her right hand torn apart by shrapnel after an attack as she took a walk around town. A 14-year-old also died near Kyiv after forces threw a smoke grenade at their shelter, then shot the teen and a woman as they attempted to flee.
“There’s so many more that we don’t have the names or picture of,” Keilar said. “So many have been injured, so many others.”
Keilar reported that an 11-year-old girl’s vehicle was shelled by soldiers during an attempt to escape Mariupol and is currently being treated inside an intensive care unit. The head of the unit said many of his Russian friends and associates do not believe the photographs are real, but are fabricated by the Ukrainians.
“But they’re real,” she said. The host concluded by reading the deceased children’s names “and so many others whose names we don’t know.”
