Children who are too sick to go home or flee the capital shelter from Russian missiles in a Kyiv hospital.
Kyiv, Ukraine – Nadia Tymoshchuk is eager for yet another round of cancer treatment to end so she can go home to her pet turtle, and hug her brother and sister.
“I miss them so much. I used to be mad at them because they were so noisy, and I can’t stand noise,” the 14-year-old told Al Jazeera in the basement of Children’s Hospital 7 in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
She has been battling gliosarcoma, a rare type of malignant brain cancer, since 2019.
But it recently metastasised, and the metastases started pressing on her kidneys. Nadia was hospitalised for renal treatment on February 9, only to find herself in the hospital’s basement sheltering from missiles after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.