It is one of the images that have occupied international covers. A woman, her two children and a church volunteer lie limp on the ground. They are Tetiana Perebyinis (43 years old), Mykyta (18), Alisa (9) and Anatoly Berezhnyi, a 26-year-old volunteer. A massacre of civilians in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Serhiy Perebyinis, the father and only survivor of the family, learned of the murder of his family by seeing the images on networks. He now tells his story in The New York Times. Lynsey Addario, the same photographer who captured the horror of this family with her camera, is photographing her now. A man with an empty look. He no longer has “nothing to lose”, explains Perebyinis to the newspaper. This is his story.
They met in high school, started dating a couple of years later and got married in 2001. They lived without financial problems in the city of Irpin, near Kiev, together with their two children and two dogs. She was an accountant and he was a computer programmer. Originally from Donestk, Serhiy had gone for a few days to take care of his mother, who had Alzheimer’s. Tetiana and the children continued with her routine. Her life was like that of many others.
But the war came. At the end of February Russia invaded the Ukraine. After the uncertainty of the first days, one night a projectile hit the building where they lived and Tetiana moved with her children to the basement. It was time to flee, but they needed a plan. Russian troops were close. In a first attempt to escape in their minivan on Saturday, they saw a Russian tank go by and waited. The next day they set off again. They picked up Tetiana’s parents and joined an evacuation party from the Church. On the way they had to abandon their van and continue on foot. Their goal was to get to Kiev first and then from there go to a safe place together.
Serhiy remembers thes last words he said to his wife on the phone: “Forgive me because I couldn’t defend you. “Don’t worry, I’ll get out of this,” she replied. But she couldn’t keep her promise.
Serhiy never heard from his family again until a social media post changed his life. Four corpses destroyed by shrapnel. A woman, a teenager and a girl destroyed by shrapnel. Next to them, a blue suitcase with wheels, a gray suitcase and some backpacks. One of the suitcases is open. Serhiy recognizes a pink girl’s shirt, sportswear, socks… It’s his family.
They tried to cross the bridge in Irpin. A Russian shell hit them squarely. It was supposed to be a safe escape route for civilians within hours of the truce reached with Putin. But the Russian troops did not respect the ceasefire.
Their bodies collapsed next to a monument to the fallen of the Second World War in Irpin. His plaque reads: “Eternal memory to those who fell for the fatherland in the Great Patriotic War.”
Source: Lasexta
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
