Cancer-striken kids trapped in Ukraine told bombs are fireworks to keep their spirits high in heartbreaking scenes

CRADLING her cancer-stricken boy in a dank hospital cellar, a Ukrainian mum begs the world to save his life.

Yana Vorobiova is trapped with two-year-old Nikita and ten other children battling the disease in a town surrounded by Russian forces.

Medicines and food at their oncology ward are running low and attempts to evacuate the children by road are thwarted by landmines and airstrikes.

Yana, who is in her 20s, pleaded: “We want to be moved to a safe place so we can continue his treatment. We need to leave this city which is being occupied more every passing day, every passing hour.”

The 11 being treated at the Chernihiv Regional Children’s Hospital’s oncology ward are rushed to its improvised bomb shelter cellar every time there’s a Russian attack.

Charity boss Sergey Zosimenko, who supports the hospital, told The Sun on Sunday: “When the sirens go off, we rush to hide the children in the cellar.

“We pretend it’s a game for them. We try to keep their spirits high. When it rumbles outside, we say it’s the Russians celebrating with fireworks.”

On Friday, an air strike destroyed an apartment block 500 yards away as the children cowered in the cellar.

Mum Yana said: “I don’t know how Nikita is getting through all this. Thankfully, he’s little and doesn’t fully understand what’s happening to him.

“He is being pulled left and right, back and forth.” Nikita, who has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and the other children have been promised treatment in Poland and Italy if they can escape.

He has spent seven months at the clinic in the once-bustling city of 285,000 people.

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Asked if she’s received support from friends and relatives, Yana replied: “You know, the words, ‘hang in there’, perhaps will soon make me throw up. 

“Because what is there to hang on to? We are at the last phase of treatment. We need to finish it so he can recover.

“And it’s not just me, it’s all the mums here who learnt about their child’s diagnosis. Some are even in worse conditions than we are.

“They already went through chemotherapy and have low immunity.

“It’s impossible to continue ­treatment in these conditions — in a cellar.”

Others on the evacuation list include Valeria Livchanovska, 15, who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, nine-year-old Vanya Chuhlibo and two-year-old Anna Shakhova.

When the sirens go off, we rush to hide the children in the cellar. We pretend it’s a game for them. We try to keep their spirits high. When it rumbles outside, we say it’s the Russians celebrating with fireworks.

Ukraine charity boss Sergey Zosimenko

But their home city of Chernihiv, just 45 miles from the Belarusian border, is hemmed in on all sides.

It is believed they remain cut off in a city where at least 47 civilians perished on Thursday and Friday amid shelling. Russian forces are indiscriminately targeting homes, a nursery and a market.

One 40-year-old resident, Svitlana, whose apartment is 50 yards from the ­children’s hospital, said she hid under her dining table with her two children, aged six and three, as the bombs rained down.

She said: “There are no military targets here. There is only a cemetery, residential buildings, clinics and a hospital. Why are they bombing us?”

Serhiy, co-founder of children’s charity EVUM, said on Friday morning that staff had made a further attempt to evacuate the children.

But in the early hours of Saturday morning, he posted on Facebook: “Day 9 here at the hospital, waiting to be evacuated, we can’t wait anymore, kids’ health deteriorating.

“We are all like one family now and do our best for them. Hospital staff did the impossible these days for both children and injured after the air strike.”

Earlier, speaking to The Sun on Sunday, Serhiy begged the West to intervene before time ran out.

He said: “We ask Nato to close the sky so that we can evacuate.

“The children who are receiving chemotherapy are in a very difficult situation. Medication, food and water are all running out.”

Chernihiv is 90 miles north east of Kyiv, on a road to the Belarusian border. An earlier attempt to reach the Ukrainian capital by road this week was thwarted by Russian troops.

And all roads in and out of ­Chernihiv have been laid with ­explosives to defend the city.

Serhiy added: “The most important thing for us is to make it to Kyiv. From there some of the children will be evacuated to Poland and others to Italy. Of course, it’ll be much better to evacuate them by air. This is why we urge people everywhere to push their governments to push Nato to close the airspace above Ukraine.”

Of the Russians targeting civilian areas, he said: “There was absolutely no military objectives.

“The Russian state is like a malignant tumour which will only stop when it’s kicked in the teeth.”

Yesterday morning, Serhiy told us over a crackling phone line: “We are attempting an evacuation. I have to go.”

It’s 90 miles to Kyiv and a further 370 miles across a war-blighted land to reach the Polish border. A perilous journey where they might finally find peace and sanctuary.