Iranian Envoy Condemns Brutal Assault on Afghan Toddler at Moscow Airport
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian official condemned a shocking assault on an 18-month-old Afghan child at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport by a Belarusian national.
The child, who had fled the Israeli regime’s aggression on Iran with his mother, is now in critical condition.
A Belarusian man has confessed to attempting to murder the Afghan toddler at a Moscow airport, prompting outrage from Iranian authorities and public calls for justice.
Footage from Sheremetyevo Airport shows Vladimir Vitkov, 31, a nuclear construction worker recently dismissed from a project in Egypt, picking up and violently throwing the child headfirst onto the floor.
The boy, Yazdan, had arrived in Moscow minutes earlier with his mother, fleeing bombings in Iran.
Vitkov admitted under police interrogation, “I attempted to murder a child… I was under the influence of drugs.” Russian investigators confirmed he had consumed large quantities of alcohol and used cannabis before the assault.
Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali denounced the attack as “completely inhuman.” Speaking to Tasnim News Agency, he said: “A video has been circulated showing a child being brutally slammed to the ground. Some have claimed the attacker is Jewish, but I cannot confirm that.”
Jalali stated that Iran immediately contacted Russian authorities to confirm the victim’s nationality. “It was initially reported the child was Iranian. Russian Foreign Ministry colleagues told us that the file is officially listed under Afghanistan. The innocent child, currently in a coma, is apparently from an Afghan family.”
Russian children’s ombudswoman Ksenia Mishonova described Vitkov as a “drug-addled monster” and demanded the harshest punishment. “I have no more strength to stay silent. This is a monster who must be punished with hard labor until old age.”
The boy's distraught mother Sahar Hajizada had repeatedly asked her if her son would recover, she said.
Doctors at Roshal Children's Centre in Moscow confirmed severe skull fractures, spinal injuries, and internal bleeding. “He had a subdural hematoma and an open skull fracture,” said Dr. Tatyana Shapovalenko. The child was placed in a medically induced coma. She said he did not require neurosurgical treatment.
Vitkov and his family live in the Gomel region of Belarus. He has a daughter, around the same age as the boy he attacked.
