Ukrainian mum defiantly plays piano to ‘say goodbye’ to bombed home in heartbreaking clip

A Ukrainian musician has been filmed defiantly playing her grand piano for one last time in among the ruins of her bombed home near Kyiv.

Professional pianist Irina Maniukhina brushed away the ashes on her piano and decided to play some music after a bomb landed just 10 metres from her in Bila Tserkva, south of the Ukrainian capital.

The strike left her home in ruins with doors and glass shown strewn across the floor in the heart-wrenching video clip.

The 48 year-old mum-of-two has been forced to flee the place where she grew up after the attack by Russian forces, but first took a minute to play her piano for one last time among the rubble.

Irina was filmed playing against the backdrop of windows at the heavily damaged family home by her daughter Karina Maniukina.

She is seen lifting the black protective covers off the instrument before sitting down and wiping away the debris from the keys, and playing a series of beautiful songs.

Her daughter shared the video on TikTok, captioning it: “Do not judge, my mother is a professional pianist and decided to play to let go of this case.”

The video has since been viewed more than 1.6 million times and has amassed over 259,000 likes.

Some social media users said the emotional clip moved them to tears, while others claimed it shows “there’s still so much beauty” amid the ruins.

Karina said that her mother wanted to play to help forget about the war.

She said: “It wasn’t a sad moment. My mother just wanted to let go of unnecessary thoughts, and I remembered events in our house with a smile.

“She wanted to forget about the war and her worries for our safety. She’s been playing all her life and she even graduated as a pianist.

“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.”

‘Everything was smashed and in ashes’

Karina has told how the shelling by Russian troops caught her family by surprise.

She 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.

"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 meters from our house."

The family were forced to escape to Lviv where they are now living as Russia’s invasion continues.

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