Tuesday 10 May 2022 01:50 PM Ukraine war: Girl, 4, saved from Mariupol but SEPARATED from medic mother who ... trends now
A four-year-old girl stuck beneath the Azovstal steel works as Putin's troops bombarded it has been rescued - but separated from her medic mother who has been deported into Russia, Ukrainian troops have said.
Alice, who made headlines around the world when she was filmed inside a bunker on the Azovstal complex saying she wanted to be evacuated, was brought out at the weekend as the last civilians trapped there were allowed to leave.
But the Azov battalion, which is holed up inside the steel works, now claims that she has been separated from her mother - Viktoria Obidina - who has been sent into Russia via a filtration camp.
Alice, a four-year-old girl trapped in bunkers beneath the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, was rescued during operation to take last civilians out at the weekend
But the toddler has been separated from mother Viktoria Obidina (pictured together) who has been deported to Russia via a filtration camp
Alice arrived in Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainian city where Azovstal evacuees are being taken, on Sunday, according to Azov's social media posts.
But Viktoria was forced to remain behind in a region of Donetsk which is currently occupied by Russian-backed rebels after passing through a filtration camp.
Ukraine says Putin's troops are using such camps to root out anyone with links to the Ukrainian government or military and deport them deep into Russia.
Viktoria is thought to have been singled out because she worked as a military medic, tending to soldiers who were wounded in the battle for Azovstal.
Her exact whereabouts are now unknown, though Kyiv has previously said people are being sent as far as Sakhalin - an island just off the coast of Japan.
Viktoria is thought to have been singled out due to her work as a military medic, and her current whereabouts are unknown
Ukrainian officials have raised doubts over whether she will ever be allowed to come back to the country to care for her daughter.
Alice will instead be cared for by relatives living away from the frontlines.
Lyudmila Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, said: “Alice is now safe.”
“She was temporarily sheltered by an employee of the Zaporizhzhia Military Administration [in Ukraine].
“Alice’s relatives have [now] been found. In the
