Eight-year-old Nadya Konyakhina has rebuilt her life as a refugee in Spain, but a dark secret hangs over her family The suntanned girl smiling in her grandmother’s arms is a world away from the pale, traumatised figure who escaped from an icy Mariupol earlier this spring.
A haunting photograph published on The Telegraph front page on March 18 showed her when she emerged from the southern Ukrainian city as it was under siege by invading Russian forces - a worried-looking child with piercing grey eyes gazing directly into the camera, her wan face framed by plaits of hair escaping from a grubby Disney hoodie.
The Telegraph has identified her as eight-year-old Nadya Konyakhina, now living as a refugee with her mother and grandmother in Spain, where a dark secret is hanging over the family.
Things are going “so-so”, said Galyna Konyakhina, speaking through a translator via Skype, as her granddaughter squirmed in her arms in their apartment close to the beach in Almería, Andalusia, on Sunday.
But when Nadya is out of earshot, Galyna reveals that a tragedy has befallen the family.
The harrowing photo of Nadya Konyakhina was featured on The Telegraph's front page in March
Nadya’s father and Galyna's eldest son, Oleksandr Konyakhin, has been killed in fighting in the Donbas region and his body has not been recovered.
Family members have not been able to bring themselves to inform Nadya of her father’s death. Galyna wanted to share the story of her son’s story as a way of honouring his sacrifice, but struggled to speak about him in depth, or when they might tell Nadya her father was gone forever.
It is the latest blow since they escaped from Mariupol, where they spent two weeks sheltering in their basement listening to the war destroying their hometown.
Simon Townsley, The Telegraph’s photographer, pictured Nadya and her mother Christina as their evacuation convoy arrived in Zaporizhzhia on March 17.
The journey out of the shattered city through Russian checkpoints had taken 26 hours and the family arrived exhausted.
While Nadya sat silently drinking an apple juice, a tearful Christina was able to video call her husband Oleksandr, who was fighting on the front line, to let them know they had successfully escaped the siege.
Nadya, Christina and Galyna would soon leave the country but the men in the family remained behind, with both Galyna’s sons Oleksandr and Roman fighting in the Ukrainian military.
We didn’t have any choice,” said Galyna, of her decision to flee to Spain. “Our youngest son [Roman] told us to leave Ukraine because we didn’t know what would happen.”
After they arrived in Spain later in March, a friend who saw the photo of Nadya online shared it with the family and then contacted The Telegraph.