A Young Girl’s Battle Amidst War and Illness in Eastern Ukraine

Amid the echoes of heavy shelling and the assistance of a police officer fitting her with child-sized body armor and an orange helmet, 12-year-old Margaryta Karpova stood silently. Russian troops had advanced to within a mile of her near-empty village in eastern Ukraine.

Holding back tears, Margaryta prepared to leave behind her home, the small village of Novoolenivka, and her father, who remained to safeguard their house. That farewell felt painfully final. Together with her mother, Liudmyla Karpova, she boarded an armored vehicle, joining the wave of over a million civilians who have fled the Donetsk region since the 2022 invasion.

However, displacement did not bring solace. After arriving at temporary shelter in western Ukraine, Margaryta began experiencing pain. Medical evaluations revealed a diagnosis of rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer predominantly affecting children. Now residing in Kyiv, she faces a second, deeply personal battle: fighting a disease that relentlessly threatens her body even as war continues to devastate her country.

“Life has come to a halt,” her mother shared. “The only thing that matters now is saving my daughter’s life.”

The family was eventually reunited with Margaryta’s father, and despite the destruction of Ukraine’s largest pediatric cancer center in Kyiv last July by a missile strike, the capital still provides the vital medical care she requires.