It was thanks to her uniquely painted fingernails that Olga, a 26-year-old Ukrainian refugee, was able to recognize her mother, Irina.

Nails painted with red varnish except the penultimate one, on which a heart is drawn.

Irina died in Boutcha, which became infamous after the massacre supposedly carried out by the Russians.

The photo has since gone viral on social media.

Anastasia, Olga's Russian makeup teacher, immediately recognized her in the photo.

"During our last lesson, she had the same nails," she told our colleagues from BFMTV.

As a tribute, she will publish two photos of her late client on Instagram, one of which is dated February 23, that is to say on the eve of the start of the war.

Germany's Bild carries a photograph of a dead woman's hand on its front page with the story of who she was.


A "loving mother", Irina, whose daughter says she was shot dead on the streets of Bucha by Russian troops.https://t.co/YRjGzIAIRm pic.twitter.com/2EuamCe2p5

— Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) April 7, 2022


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“I thought she had remained hidden in a cellar”

Without news of her mother since March 5, Olga therefore learned of her death thanks to this photo published on the social network: “I had no news from my mother, I thought she had remained hidden in a cellar.

Then I learned that she had been shot at, that she had received a burst of bullets.

After [weeks] of searching, I thought I would find my mother in a hospital.

I recognized her, dead, in this photo.

"I'm 26 and I feel like I died with her," she added.

Olga is now trying to recover her mother's body, which in the context of the war, could prove particularly long, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

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  • World

  • War in Ukraine

  • Russia