Why a Ukrainian mother scribbled details of relatives on her toddler's back

Vira Makoviy's back was scribbled with details of her relatives in case her parents got killed in the war. (Image: @aleksandra.mako/Twitter)

A harrowing picture from war-torn Ukraine shows a toddler’s back scribbled with her name and contact details of her family in case her parents get killed in the violence. The photo has gone viral on social media and has been shared by the child’s mother on Instagram and by Ukrainian journalists on Twitter.

In her Instagram post, Sasha Makoviy jotted down the circumstances behind her taking the step that sent chills down her back.

She says she scribbled details on her two-year-old daughter Vira in case something happened to us. The details were for anyone who may pick her up after she and her husband died in case.

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A post shared by Sasha Makoviy (@aleksandra.mako)

She adds that a crazy thought came to her mind. “Why didn't I tattoo her with this information?" her post in Ukrainian reads.

Vira’s back had details of her family, phone numbers of relatives and her date of birth.

“I signed it (Vira’s back) with my hands trembling a lot. But why? You already know what it's like to wake up to deafening and powerful sounds of explosions that can be heard for tens of kilometers. I was shaking for the first hours like you,” Sasha Makoviy, Vira’s mother, recounts.

The second photo in the post shows a piece of paper with Vira’s details written in English and Ukrainian. Her parents’ names and address were also jotted down apart from the contacts, possibly for identification. Makoviy says that she still can’t throw out the piece of paper from her overalls even though they were now at a safe location.

She added that she barely had the strength to put the post out on Instagram.

“It hurts to go to the photo gallery. There's such a wonderful life that we had,” she wrote in her post.

On Twitter, a Kyiv-based journalist tweeted the photo out with the caption: “Ukrainian mothers are writing their family contacts on the bodies of their children in case they get killed and the child survives. And Europe is still discussing gas.”

Last month, 109 empty prams were kept in Rynok Square in Lviv, as a grim reminder of the children killed during the war.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been raging since February 24. Defiant civilians have stayed back and defended their rights as millions fled the country. Thousands of civilians have died in the war that Russian President Vladimir Putin has dubbed a “special military operation.”