Bucha resident recognized a dead woman’s hand in the photo. Here’s what we know about the deceased

Anastasia Subacheva, a make-up artist from Bucha (Kyiv region) recognized her client in one of the photos showing dead civilians – they were all over the global media. The deceased woman was Iryna Filkina, who took Anastasia’s make-up classes. Subacheva opened up to Bird in Flight about how they both met.

Iryna started attending Anastasia’s make-up classes at the beginning of February; she had a few lessons. “Last lesson was on February 23, that was when we bought her all the products she lacked. That day, she also gave me a pep talk, which I mentioned in my post. She realized that she started living it up way too late and urged me to live the moment while I can,” the woman recalls.

Anastasia says that she recognized Iryna when she saw a two-photo collage while scrolling the newsfeed. One photo showed a dead woman’s manicured hand (the picture was shot by a Reuters reporter Zohra Bensemra), in another there was Iryna’s portrait.

“After realizing that this picture felt familiar for quite a long time, I checked my Viber chat with Iryna. She attended my lessons the day before the war began, in the photo I took for her, she was with the same manicure,” the woman recalls.

Subacheva says that Iryna had been reported missing since March 5. “We were informed that she got under the shelling during her escape. Nobody saw her afterwards,” tells Anastasia. Later on, Iryna’s daughter confirmed her death.

As for Anastasia, she managed to move from Bucha to Kropyvnytskyi sooner. Some of her family is still in the city, occupied by the Russian military. “They’ve hardly been in contact these days, but I know that they are alive. They were starving, but now everything’s fine,” says Subacheva.

Russian troops invaded Bucha on February 27. After almost a month, the Ukrainian military began a counterattack and managed to take over Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel. The city was liberated on April 1.