Russian invasion of Ukraine.Photo: SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty
The father of a Ukrainian family who diedin the Russian invasionhas told news outlets he learned of their deaths from seeing photos of their bodies on social media.
“They were just trying to get out of town. To escape. The whole family,” Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn previously said in remarks. “How many such families have died in Ukraine? We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war.”
The bodies of Tatiana, Mykyta, and Alisa could be seen lying on the ground in a now-viral photo taken for theTimes.
In an interview, Serhiy recounted his last conversation with Tatiana, whom he met in high school and reconnected with years later at a Ukrainian nightclub. The two married in 2001.
Irpin, Ukraine.Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty
The night before his family was killed, Serhiy told theTimeshe apologized to his wife for not being able to help her escape.
“I told her, ‘Forgive me that I couldn’t defend you,’ " he said. “I tried to care for one person, and it meant I cannot protect you. She said, ‘Don’t worry, I will get out.’ "
Serhiy described how the family spent days in a basement in their apartment building, after it was shelled, and had made one attempt to evacuate earlier, but called it off when they spotted a tank.
Their next attempt was planned in greater detail and would have involved them crossing a bridge over Irpin River.
Speaking to theTimes, Serhiy said he first realized something had gone wrong when he looked at a locator app that monitored his wife’s location, which it said was at Clinical Hospital No. 7 in Kyiv.
After numerous attempts to call both her and their children, Serhiy looked on Twitter, where reports was beginning to spread of a family who was killed while trying to cross a bridge.
Then he saw a photo.
“I recognized the luggage and that is how I knew,” he said.
The photo of their bodies, Serhiy said, served as evidence of the human toll of the invasion to all those who are watching: “The whole world should know what is happening here.”
Irpin, Ukraine.ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty
With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy, 44, called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin, 69, insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
