It showed Perebyinis’ wife, Tatiana, 43, and their two children, Mykyta, 18, and Alisa, 9. The fourth victim was Anatoly Berezhnyi, a 26-year-old church volunteer who had crossed with the family, the Times reported. All four are dead.
Perebyinis confirmed that account in a brief interview with The Washington Post earlier Thursday, explaining that he recognized his family in the photos from their clothing and personal effects. He was not with his wife and children because he was taking care of his mother in Donetsk.
“It’s a war crime, and someone has to be held accountable,” he told the Post. “I lost everyone and lost the meaning of life.”
The incident happened on Sunday. As Irpin residents attempted to evacuate, Russian troops fired mortar shells into the town, killing at least eight people, The Post reported, including Perebyinis’ wife and children. The attack came as Ukrainian officials accused Russia of violating agreements regarding humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians. Russian officials have denied the charges, but images of the woman and her children lying on the ground have been seen as grim evidence of the war’s violence against ordinary Ukrainians.
“My wife, two children and two dogs died,” Perebyinis said. “I was left alone. We lived happily for 23 years.
Serhiy and Tatiana Perebyinis met in high school and ended up getting married in 2001, he told The Times. They lived in Donetsk, a region in eastern Ukraine, until 2014 when fighting broke out there between pro-Russian separatists and forces backed by the Ukrainian government, Perebyinis told the Post. The family left and settled in Kiev.
Tatiana Perebyinis worked for SE Ranking, a Silicon Valley software company, joining its Kiev offices in 2016 and becoming the head of the company’s accounting department, company spokeswoman Ksenia Khirvonina told The Post. Perebyinis was in the office with his daughter the day before Russian troops invaded the country on February 24. After that, “no one came to the office, and everyone was hiding or fleeing and trying to leave the country,” Khirvonina said.
In the days that followed, Perebyinis remained. Although the company offered financial assistance to employees wishing to leave, she took refuge with her children and parents in their home in Irpin, a suburb west of Kiev. She didn’t want to leave her son, who was not allowed to leave the country because he was 18 and of fighting age, Khirvonina told the Post. Perebyinis was also concerned about how to move her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, The Times reported.
But their building was quickly hit by shelling, forcing the family into a basement without food or electricity, Khirvonina told the Post.
It was then that they decided to evacuate. Their plan on Sunday was to join a religious group, travel to Kyiv and find a safer destination from there, Serhiy Perebyinis told The Times. They headed towards Kyiv along a damaged bridge and were crossing past a World War II monument when they were hit by mortar shells that flew shrapnel, The Times reported.
The children died instantly, Khirvonina said, and Serhiy Perebyinis said his wife died in hospital the next day. Even before the photos were shared on social media, Perebyinis knew something was wrong because he tracked his wife’s cell phone and saw her location change from the highway to a hospital in Kiev, he told The Post.
Tatiana Perebyinis’ colleague knew it was her in the photos because she had worn the coat at a company retreat a few weeks earlier. “My hands just couldn’t stop shaking,” Khirvonina told the Post.
A few weeks earlier, Khirvonina had been paragliding with Perebyinis in the Georgian nation. It was Perebyinis who encouraged Khirvonina to participate. She described Perebyinis as a courageous woman, a kind mother and a generous colleague.
“She was a wonderful woman,” Khirvonina said. “And I think it’s so unfair that their lives were taken so brutally.”
“There is no forgiveness, no understanding for these acts,” she added. “We will never forget this. I’m so afraid that this hatred will be with us for… generations to come.”
