Pictured: Family killed by Russians as they fled war-ravaged Ukrainian town
9 March 2022, 08:41 | Updated: 9 March 2022, 15:45
The Ukrainian family slaughtered by Russian troops while fleeing the war on the outskirts of Kyiv has been identified - after a harrowing photo of their lifeless bodies sent shockwaves around the world.
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Tatyana Perebeynos and her daughter Alise, 9, and son Nikita, 18, were killed when invading forces attacked with mortars.
Her family had been trying to escape from Iprin, a settlement near the capital Kyiv that has been devastated as Russian forces apparently look to encircle the city.
They were struck with Russian mortar fire as they fled on Sunday and harrowing images of their bodies laid in the street emerged soon after.
Sergey Perebeynos, Tatyana's husband who survived the attack, posted their photos on Facebook and said: "Tania couldn't make it. What is this all for? What's next?"
"I'm on my way, I must see you one last time. Forgive me, I didn't cover you."
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The family is understood to have moved from Tatyana's home of Donetsk in 2014, when violence broke out in the eastern oblasts.
The Donetsk region is one of two separatist areas on the border with Russia which began rebelling in a Kremlin-backed conflict with Kyiv.
Vladimir Putin used the regions as part of his excuse for his invasion.
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Tatyana, 43, and Sergey settled into a new home in Irpin with Alise, 9, and Nikita, 18.
They had been unable to leave earlier because Tatyana was looking after her mother, who was ill.
She was described as having a "great sense of humour" whose stories about her family made people laugh.
She worked as the head of accounting at SE Ranking, a small IT firm.
Her colleague Elena Karpova told the Telegraph: "She made people smile whenever she spoke. Bright, witty, determined.
"She was like a big sister to our whole team… we will never forget and never forgive."
SE Ranking said: "Our hearts are broken," it said.
"The family was trying to evacuate from Irpin – a small city right near Kyiv that has been left without water supply, electricity, and heating.
"There are no words to describe our grief or to mend our pain. But for us, it is crucial to not let Tatyana and her kids Alise and Nikita become nothing but statistics."
The family's two pet dogs were caught up in the attack, one is understood to have died and the other is missing.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged revenge for the assault on Iprin.
"They were just trying to get out of town. To escape. The whole family. How many such families have died in Ukraine?" he said in a video message.
"We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war."
He told the Russian invaders: "There will be no quiet place on this earth for you. Except for the grave."
Iprin's mayor Oleksandr Markushyn said the family was killed in front of his eyes and branded the attackers "monsters".
Some 2 million Ukrainians have had to flee the fighting and become refugees.
They have been told they can use humanitarian corridors to flee the violence and besieged cities - but in places like coastal Mariupol in the south such efforts have been hampered by collapsing ceasefires.
