Photo: CNN
CNN newscaster Erin Burnett tearfully interviewed a Ukrainian father of two who recently learned thathis wife and two children were killedinRussia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
“That was the day when already there was no water, electricity, gas, and we discussed — I spoke to her at 10 p.m., even though at that point there was no connectivity either. But I managed to get through and had a discussion about potential evacuation,” he said.
He then described theevents leading up to her death, saying, “At the last moment however, the convoy she was planning to travel with was shelled at and fired at. And then she came on foot to the bridge, trying to make an escape on foot.”
“She was a very cheerful person, she was the financial director of a large American company,” he continued. “We spent lots of time together as a family. We loved bicycles, in winter we went skiing, and she loved very much planting flowers at her dacha, countryside cottage.”
Tetiana was 43 at the time of her death and was chief accountant at SE Rankings, a Silicon Valley tech company,Fortunereports.
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The grieving father and husband then explained how he utilized Google geolocation to remain abreast of his family’s activities and whereabouts during the war, noticing the morning of their deaths over the weekend how their location on Google Maps was “unusual.”
“I noticed that there was an unusual geolocation between Kyiv and their pin. And then 20 minutes later, her phone moved to another location, to a hospital in Kyiv. And I suspected something was wrong,” he said.
“And then I saw a photo on Twitter, and I recognized my children. I recognized their things and their clothes. And I called my friends to say that the children are dead. Their bodies are lying on pavement,” he told Burnett.
Of his kids, Perebiynis said that “they were normal, cheerful children.”
He explained that his son Mykita was 18 at the time of his death and in second year of university. He wanted to become an IT professional, his father said, and studied programming.
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
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With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyycalled for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin 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
