Ukrainian mums are reportedly writing contact details for relatives on their children's skin in case they are killed by Russian forces and their children survive.
Kyiv Independent journalist Anastasiia Lapatina tweeted a picture of a toddler with a telephone number written across their back in marker pen.
She claims parents across the wartorn country are doing this to ensure their child is taken care of if they do not survive the shelling from Russian forces.
The journalist wrote: "Ukrainian mothers are writing their family contacts on the bodies of their children in case they get killed and the child survives. And Europe is still discussing gas."
The woman who posted the original image to Instagram said that she signed her child's back when she heard explosions just kilometres away.
A translation of the caption reads: "In the photo, (the child's) back on the first day of the war. I signed it with my hands trembling very much. But why tell you?
"You already know what it's like to wake up to the deafening and powerful sounds of explosions that can be heard for tens of kilometres. I was shaking for the first hours like you.
"She signed (the child) in case something happened to us, and someone would pick her up as a survivor. Or it will be lost, which, according to my logic, could only happen when I was disconnected.
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"Then even a crazy thought flashed through my mind "why didn't I tattoo her with this information?" And I still can't bring myself to put this scrambled paper in the second photo out of my overalls pocket."
She confirmed that she and her child have managed to make it to safety.
However, people across the internet have expressed their heartbreak at the measures parents have had to take to ensure their children are free from harm.
One said: "Just looked at the date – she's exactly three months older than my daughter. This just breaks my heart…"
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Another added: "The fact that anyone has to do this just destroys me completely."
A third wrote: "As a parent, I can't even imagine doing this because no one is safe. Heartbreaking."
The news comes after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Russian troops had slit the throats of civilians, raped and killed women in front of their kids, and cut out tongues "because they didn’t hear what they wanted to.”
Speaking of the atrocities being reported from the Kyiv Oblast town of Bucha – which was recently liberated from Russian forces, he said: "Just for their pleasure. They cut off limbs cut their throat slashed their throats. Women were raped and killed in front of their children."
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