Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins' Ukrainian family is still grieving over her shooting death in October on the set of the film Rust. Now her widower says they're dealing with a new tragedy: the ongoing invasion by the Russian military. Matt Hutchins said in a tweet that his late wife's family remains in Kyiv as attacks on the country's capital continue in areas that had been designated as safe passages.
"Ukrainian refugees need humanitarian corridors. Halyna's family is trapped in Kyiv because of the danger of travel," he tweeted, adding that Hutchins' parents, Olga and Anatoly Androsovych, stayed in Kyiv "to prepare for the worst." He said her mother continues to work in the hospital where she's been a nurse for over a decade "because her country needs her, but also because they cannot leave safely."
"Halyna's sister, Svetlana, made it safely from Kyiv to Romania with her three yr old daughter and will continue onward to Western Europe," he wrote. "Parents stayed in Kyiv to prepare for the worst. Mother, Olga, still working as nurse at the hospital where has worked for 30+ years."
Hutchins is calling for more support for Ukrainian refugees, military aid, and diplomatic intervention to protect Ukraine's independence.
"Ukraine needs a no-fly zone," he wrote. "China needs to step up and do what NATO cannot. Chinese intervention to guarantee both sides will stay out of the sky and not use rocket bombardment of ground forces would boost China's global standing and save face for Vladimir Putin."
He also praised Ukraine's defenders for their bravery. "Keep telling the truth about Putin's invasion and atrocities. Support refugees and the territorial defense with aid and any intervention possible to protect the Ukrainian citizens and their independence," he tweeted.
Halyna Hutchins was born in 1979 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. She spent much of her childhood on a Soviet naval base. She became a cinematographer after studying journalism at at Kyiv National University, and she kept her Ukrainian citizenship after leaving the country and marrying Matt Hutchins, a U.S. citizen. They have a nine-year-old son, Andros.
Matt Hutchins is suing Alec Baldwin and other producers of the Western film Rust. During the rehearsal of a scene, Baldwin was holding the gun that discharged, shooting and killing Halyna Hutchins, and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin maintains that he's not legally responsible for the fatality.
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