A survivor of the Holocaust has died following Vladimir Putin's brutal siege after cruelly being forced to shelter without water in a freezing Mariupol basement.
Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, 91, was made to hide from Russian troops and died on April 4, her heartbroken family have announced.
Her death came days after a pundit on Russian state TV caused outrage after admitting war-lord Putin's goal is "to erase the very idea of being a Ukrainian ".
Distraught daughter Larissa, who had also been hiding in the basement with her mother, says she did not deserve to die in such a manner.
She told news site Chabad.org: "Mama didn't deserve such a death. There was no water, no electricity, no heat - and it was unbearably cold."
"There was nothing we could do for her. We were living like animals. Every time a bomb fell, the entire building shook, she added to Chabad.org.
“My mother kept saying she didn’t remember anything like this during the Great Patriotic War [second world war].”
More than 80 years ago, she had hidden in a cellar as the Nazis occupied Mariupol.
Mrs Obiedkova avoided capture when German forces occupied the city in October 1941 but her mother was shot.
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Rabbi Mendel Cohen, who is also based in the Ukrainian city, described her as “a kind, joyous woman, a special person who will forever remain in our hearts” and who had “lived through unimaginable horrors”.
A chilling statement was last week was made on Russian television as the pundit admitted the idea of being a Ukrainian "needs to be totally eradicated".
He said: "In reality, Russian people we're told 'now you're going to be' (Ukrainians). Even though the name itself is insulting, an insulting name, to be one of the Russian people and to suddenly become Ukrainians.
"The idea of being a Ukrainian, and one of the Russian people was told they're not Russian, you have to hate Russians and fight them. This idea needs to be totally eradicated."
Putin has reportedly set up a secret remote island in the east corner of Russia where Ukrainians are sent to work camps and banned from leaving.
According to Ukraine ’s Permanent Representative to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya, more than 500,000 Ukrainians, including 121,000 children have been “forcibly transferred” to Russia.
President Putin is also blocking Ukrainian's from leaving as he looks to strengthen his control over the war-torn country.
When the Ukrainian's arrive, they are served documents preventing them from leaving for two years, DailyStar reports.
Some Ukrainians have been sent to the remote industrial island of Sakhalin, which is well known for its unforgiving winters and constant rain, on Russia's far eastern territory and is practically inescapable for the Ukrainians.
