Two children have died as their two siblings battle for their lives in hospital after eating their mother’s soup made from freshly-picked forest mushrooms.
The tragedy took place in the village of Alexandrovka in the district of Desnyanskiy in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv Oblast.
Mother-of-five Evgeniya Alekseenko decided to feed her family soup made with the first mushrooms of the spring, picked in the woods near her house.
Four children begin to feel unwell after eating the soup and the following day, two children, five-year-old Alina and seven-month-old Viktor, fell unconscious and were taken to hospital.
The other two children were also hospitalised the following day, but the eldest Maxim did not eat the mushroom soup as he lives with his grandmother.
Alina was the first to die after her internal organs reportedly failed.
Hospital director Olga Ivanova said: “This was poisoning. Both her liver and other organs failed as well as her central nervous system. She arrived here in a coma.”
Alexander Kareta, the hospital’s chief physician, said Little Viktor died several days later after being placed on a ventilator.
Kareta added: “On 2nd May, the child died. The toxins poisoned his body and as a result his internal organs stopped working.”
Picture shows children mushroom hunting shortly before two of them have died as their two siblings battle for their lives in hospital after eating their mothers soup made from freshly-picked forest mushrooms in the district of Desnyanskiy in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv Oblast on 26th April. 
Two children have died as their two siblings battle for their lives in hospital after eating their mothers soup made from freshly-picked forest mushrooms in the district of Desnyanskiy in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv Oblast on 26th April.
Doctors are still battling to save the victims’ six-year-old brother Timofey and three-year-old sister Veronica at the Okhmatdet children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
The pregnant mother, who at first felt okay, is now also in intensive care with liver problems.
Local media said the family is registered with social services who tried to deprive the mother of her parental rights before.
An investigation is underway.
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