Touching moment Ukrainian girl, 6, who lost her leg in a Russian strike rides a bike for the first time – after becoming first child to be fitted with a prosthetic since war began

• Marinya, 6, is the Ukrainian girl who rode a bike with her new prosthetic leg
• READ MORE:  Ukraine’s secret weapon: How the female resistance movement is helping to win the war 

A six-year-old Ukrainian girl who tragically lost her leg to a Russian missile strike has miraculously learned how to ride a bike – after being the first Ukrainian child to be fitted with one since the Russian invasion.

Marinya bravely cycled through red cones with her new prosthetic after being injured in the Kherson bombing of May 2022.

Her cycling was supervised by physiotherapists in the capital – at The Kyiv Institute of Rehabilitation – who were keen to document the miracle on their Facebook page.

Her mother Nataliaa was also injured in the bombing – but the pair sadly had to part ways in order to undergo treatments at two different hospitals in Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine. 

The institute, where ‘rehabilitation for victims of Russian aggression is free’ shared the footage on Facebook.

Marinya bravely cycled through red cones with her new prosthetic after being injured in the Kherson bombing of May 2022

Prior to her post-operative care in Kyiv, Marinya’s aunt Luibov looked after her, according to reports from The Independent. 

Her psychologist Tetiana Pidkova told Russian newspaper Pravda: ‘There was a separation between mother and daughter, and the girl became more bonded to her aunt. 

‘It was like a barrier protection because the child could not use the bathroom, move, or dress on her own’.

Pidkova went on to explain that the young child suffers from PTSD as a result of her loss of limb rather than the war itself.

Once she was reunited with her mother, she became retraumatised and originally refused to engage with her prosthetic leg. 

But after she had overcome some of her trauma, with the help of a psychologist, she accepted her prosthetic as her own and even named the limb as Kesha.  

Port city Kherson was Ukraine’s first major city to be captured by the Russian Armed Forces in the war.

In 2023 it still remains a hotspot for the Russian military, with attacks continuing as Putin’s onslaught has entered its 20th month.

Her cycling was supervised by physiotherapists in the capital – at The Kyiv Institute of Rehabilitation – who were keen to document the miracle on their Facebook page

This comes after a woman was killed and three people were wounded in the Kherson region, including a police officer, according to the region’s governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Russian forces struck the city of Beryslav, destroying an unspecified number of private houses.

Another air strike also killed a 67-year-old man in the village of Lvove, Mr Prokudin said without specifying the type of weapons used in the attack.

The communities hit are both located in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Kherson region, where the Dnieper River has marked a battle line since November 2022, when Russian forces retreated across it, boosting the invaded country’s morale.

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