A desperately sad video shows a Ukrainian musician playing one last song on her piano to say farewell to her family home after it was wrecked by a Russian bomb.
Professional pianist Irina Maniukina was filmed brushing away the ashes on her grand piano just hours after a bomb landed 30 feet from her home in Bila Tserkva, south of Kyiv.
The 48-year-old has since been forced to flee the city she was born in after a Russian airstrike left the area in ruins on Saturday, March 5.
Irina Maniukina opened the case of her piano and played a beautiful adieu to her home in Bila Tserkva as her family prepared to leave
Mother-of-two Irina was filmed lifting the black protective covers off her white grand piano before sitting down and wiping away dirt and ash.
She then proceeds to start playing beautifully in front of bombed out windows and smashed debris.
In a heartfelt moment, the emotion can be felt as the camera pans around to show rubble and the remains of their family home.
Outside her neighbours stand around a huge crater in the ground.
Irina’s daughter, Karina Maniukina, shared the video on TikTok on Monday, writing: ‘Do not judge, my mother is a professional pianist and decided to play to let go of this case.’
The video has now collected over 1.6 million views and more than 225,000 likes. More than 3,900 comments were left from viewers who were left heartbroken by the clip.
A picture from Irina Maniukina’s window in Bila Tserkva, central Ukraine, shows other homes completely destroyed. The bomb crater is circled in red
One anonymous user said: ‘This is absolutely incredible and heartbreaking, just so many emotions from this video!’
Bartjf said: ‘I’ve seen a lot of war footage, but this choked me up.’
Minkook Younee said: ‘I just burst into tears, this is so beautiful but also so heartbreaking.’
MurMyers Home added: ‘This is incredibly beautiful and incredibly sad at the same time.’
What was a much-loved family home has been left in ruins after Russian bombs terrorised the city of Bila Tserkva
Speaking today, Karina said: ‘In the morning my mother and brother went to the market and I stood in the kitchen and made pancakes.
‘The night was quiet and there was no siren alarm that morning.
‘I didn’t hear any sounds, and suddenly I saw an orange-black cloud to my right. Until that moment, I had not heard any aircraft or a bomb flying.
‘After the explosion, everything was smashed and in ashes. I looked around the house and saw that a fire was starting in my brother’s room.
‘Before that, I had already called my mother and they rushed as quickly as possible. They couldn’t drive straight to the house because the wires just lay on the road.
The video has been viewed more than over 1.6 million times with over 3,900 comments left from viewers who were left heartbroken by the clip
‘They ran into the house and all together we put out the fire. After that, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and my mother decided to gather her thoughts and sit down at the piano.
‘She started playing not only to relax, but to collect her thoughts and say goodbye to the house, and also to remember the good moments that were in our house.
‘Since there was a lot of ash and dust in the keys and everyone was in a state of shock, she could not play for a long time.
‘Then we called our friends and acquaintances and began to clean the house from glass and damaged furniture, and also took out all the things that were left.
‘The bomb was about 10 metres from our house.’
The family have now been forced to travel 300 miles to Lviv in western Ukraine, where they have been living since Monday. Karina says the city – close to the Polish border – a ‘very quiet and peaceful place’.