A 7-year-old Ukrainian girl who came to Israel to receive life-saving treatment for leukemia and three of her family members were named Wednesday as among those killed in an early-morning Iranian missile strike on a Bat Yam apartment building this week.
Nastia Borik came to Israel in 2022 along with her mother, Maria Peshkurova, 30; her grandmother, Lena Peshkurova, 60; and her two cousins, Konstantin Totvich, 9, and Ilya Peshkurov, 13.
The mother remains missing following the missile strike. The three others are confirmed to have been killed.
According to Israeli media, the family arrived in Israel from Odessa in December 2022 as part of Nastia’s treatment; they are not Jewish, nor did they have any previous connection to Israel.
Father, the only family member to survive, fighting in Ukraine
The decision to come to a foreign country for treatment was not easy, as the family left Nastia’s father, Artem, in Ukraine due to the country’s wartime restriction on men leaving the country.
Artem Borik is currently on the frontlines fighting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian sources disagree as to exactly which unit Artem is currently fighting in; however, both units are considered elite special forces units involved in raiding Russian forces in occupied Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Embassy is currently arranging for the repatriation of all the bodies to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Embassy has announced it will be arranging the return of Ukrainian citizens and permanent residents who request to return to Ukraine.
Currently, around 23,000 Ukrainian citizens live in Israel, around half of whom arrived after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.