EXCLUSIVE Tragic final words of Ukrainian girl, seven, killed by Iranian missile while undergoing cancer treatment in Israel, are revealed - as father says the child's mother is 'still being gathered, piece by piece'

Daily Mail​

3 hours ago

The devastated Ukrainian soldier whose seven-year-old daughter and wife were killed in an Iranian missile strike said he has been frozen ever since he heard the news.
Artem Buryk was on the frontline when he learnt his only child, Anastasia - affectionately dubbed Nastya - and her 30-year-old mother, Maria Pashkurova were caught up in the blast.
They were killed alongside Nastya's grandmother, Olena Pashkurova, 60, and cousins Kostiantyn Totvych, 9, and Illia Pashkurov, 13.
'Honestly, I don't even know what to call this,' Artem told the Mail, speaking for the first time of his heartbreak. 'I've never experienced anything like it, nothing even close.'
Just hours before speaking to the Mail, his wife's death was confirmed after rescue workers found her body in the rubble.
'They were still gathering my wife's body—literally, piece by piece,' he said. 'But it's now official. The conclusion has been made: it's her.
'I'm just trying to say goodbye.'
Artem, 39, thought he had given little Nastya the best chance at life after raising $50,000 to send her to Israel for world-leading treatment in December 2022.
Strict laws preventing men from leaving Ukraine meant he remained to fight Russia while his only child and her mother, Maria, travelled for the life-saving care.
Complications from her illness forced her to stay in Israel for a radical new procedure.
This meant they were living under a constant barrage after the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, sparked a deadly war that has seen tens of thousands killed.
The family always trusted the Jewish state's legendary Iron Dome to protect them.
But then, last week, Iran's latest onslaught got through and wiped out all five relatives who were living in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv.
Just days earlier, as Iran's retaliation for Israel's attack on their nuclear facilities intensified, Nastya recorded a voice note to her loving father.
'Papa, I saw them shoot down a rocket. But I'm okay,' she said.
That was the last he ever heard from her.
Reliving the moment he found out, Artem, whose brother Ruslan, 51, died earlier this year, said: 'Just four months ago, I buried my own brother.
'I took time off from the army and arranged the funeral. Then I came back—and now this.
'It was my godmother who brought me the news. She told me: "Sit down."
'Since that Sunday, I haven't really gotten back up. I still can't process it. I can't understand how this is real.'
Artem and his family were living in the Black Sea port city of Odesa when Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February 2022.
He answered the call to fight, and joined the elite 95th Airborne Assault Brigade. But then that summer Nastya was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.
'[My wife] Masha called me and said Nastya had lost her appetite, wasn't eating properly,' he recalled. 'So she went and had her tested.
'They found abnormalities in her blood—suspected leukemia. The samples were sent to a lab, and it was confirmed: stage four leukemia.
'She was admitted to a clinic in Odesa immediately. I got a leave of absence and went straight there.'
Standard chemotherapy did not help and they were told she needed specialist treatment - with Israel, then at peace, recommended as having the best doctors and clinics.
Artem appealed for donations and they managed to raise the $50,000 required - before bidding a heartbreaking farewell to his wife and child as he had to stay and fight.
At that point, while fearing for his daughter, he never considered that his wife might not return. He was supposed to be the one in the gravest danger, fighting Russia.
A bone marrow transplant and other operations did not work, so Nastya underwent a radical new procedure to encourage the failed bone marrow transplant.
As treatment dragged on her grandmother and cousins flew out to support them this spring. Then, finally, in recent weeks, the new course appeared to be working.
'She started to get better—at least it seemed so,' said Artem. 'We spoke on the phone every day. Every single day. She told me she had an appetite again.
'She said: "Papa, I finished a whole bowl of borscht today! I'm going for a little walk outside now." I told her I was proud of her.'
Then on June 13 Israel took what it termed a 'pre-emptive' strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, provoking a ferocious response from Tehran which rained down hundreds of ballistic missiles.
'That last week, she was eating really well,' Artem said. 'She sent me a voice message: 'Papa, I saw them shoot down a rocket. But I'm okay.' That was the last time we spoke.'
They were killed in a ballistic missile strike on June 15 that reduced a street to rubble and killed 10 in total in the worst single loss of civilian lives in Israel since the war broke out.
Artem said it 'never entered my mind' that this could happen. 'They always boasted about the Iron Dome on the news,' he said.
'Masha used to tell me, "Don't worry, it's far from us." And the Dome worked, she said. She was even proud of it.
'It never even occurred to me - not for a second - that something like this could happen.'
Describing his daughter, he said: 'Nastya… she was like a little angel. Some kids get fussy, throw tantrums, cry hysterically when you take something from them—but not her.
'She was very calm. Her nature was just like my mother's—gentle, quiet. She was never one to cry or complain.
'She absolutely adored animals. It was her dream. We bought her a German shepherd, a big one named Jessie, and she would spend all her time with her.
'Later we got a cat, and that was it -she didn't care for toys anymore. She could spend entire days outside with the dog, throwing pebbles for her to fetch.
'She loved travelling with me. I'd go to the garage, to fix a car with some of the guys, and she'd come along - digging around the tools, helping out in her own way.
'She enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. She'd come home all dirty, we'd wash her, bathe her…'
The five bodies have been cremated and Artem's sister-in-law Krystina Pashkurova is travelling to Israel and will collect the remains once airspace reopens.
They hope to have a funeral in Ukraine this week, though following America's entry into the was this weekend it seems unlikely the skies will open any time soon.
Asked how he can go on after so much loss, Artem said: 'I know I have to stay strong- because there's still so much ahead. So much I still need to do.
'I have to take care of the rest of the family – I have an old dad, another brother. My wife is survived by another sister…
'Thank God for my fellow soldiers, for my commanders. They supported me, stood by me. They told me, "If you need anything, just say it."