A young mother, Vladislava Podchapko, has left her one-year-old son to starve to death and his
two-year-old sister alone with the body of the dead child for days while she
went out with her new lover.
Vladislava Podchapko's youngest, Daniil, a boy aged 23 months, died from hunger after six days.
Her first daughter, Anna, two months short of her third birthday, remained alone in the flat with her brother's body for another three days.
The 20-year-old mother left them only candles when she locked them in her flat in central Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, before vanishing with a boyfriend.
The girl was rushed to hospital on the point of death from starvation. Miraculously, she is expected to survive.
"The girl was exhausted, she was very weak," said a doctor involved in her treatment.
"She was immediately taken into hospital where we started intravenous feeding. She is better now and we can say that she will live. We have started her on tiny amounts of solid food."
The mother has been detained and faces up to eight years in prison for child neglect.
Confronted by police, the reckless lady replied: "I didn't know that children could die."
The frightened and confused children had tried to escape from the locked flat, pulling and tearing the linoleum by the front door.
Neighbours heard the children crying in the morning and evening.
In any event, the stranded children received no help, and are believed to have been found when their mother finally returned.
Police were then called.
Funny enough, her social media account is full of pictures of her children from before the incident, and messages of love to them.
She has an iPhone and loves enjoying life with men.
The children are from her previous marriage, and she found a new boyfriend who got her pregnant.
