A Russian missile killed this Ukrainian man's entire family as they tried to escape Putin's onslaught
Kyiv — Nothing may demonstrate more clearly the savagery of Russia's war in Ukraine and the reckless disregard for human life than a missile strike tearing through a crowd of civilians trying to flee the onslaught. That's what happened in Irpin on March 6, as the Kyiv suburb came under heavy bombardment from Russian missiles and artillery.
Serhiy Perebyinis was hundreds of miles away, looking after his ailing mother in eastern Ukraine, while his family hunkered down, trapped in their home in Irpin.
"Irpin was already heavily shelled," he told CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata. Their apartment building was hit. "There was no electricity, no gas, no water, the [cellular] signal had disappeared completely by the end of the day."
That night, his wife Tetiana managed to find a cell signal on the top floor of their building.
"That was when we talked for the last time," he told CBS News. Serhiy and his wife decided it was too dangerous for her and their children, Mykyta, 18, and Alisa, 9, to stay put any longer.
"I told my wife, 'I am sorry, I couldn't protect you.' But she said, 'don't worry, we will get through it, everything will be good,'" Serhiy told D'Agata.
He tracked Tetiana's phone as his family made a run for it. Soon, the tracking app showed that his wife was at a hospital.
"That is when I started suspecting that something is wrong," Serhiy told D'Agata. "I called my friend and asked him to go to the [hospital] reception to ask if any wounded were admitted and what is happening."
Twenty minutes later, he started seeing reports on Twitter about a Russian strike hitting a key bridge as a convoy of vehicles tried to evacuate Irpin. A family was said to be among the victims of the strike.
Then a photo came up on Serhiy's phone — an image that resonated around the world, showing the bodies of children — of a family struck down.
"I recognized my children even though their faces where hidden," Serhiy said. "I was able to recognize them by their clothing, their backpacks, and the suitcase."
Tetiana, the woman he'd been with since high school, was also killed.
Mykyta was set to become a software engineer, like his father.
"He was a smart and educated man," Serhiy said of his son. "He was helping all of us a lot."
His daughter Alisa "liked dancing," the father said. She was "very beautiful."
"I am trying to keep my emotions to myself," he told D'Agata. "I am angry at Russia, at Putin, and the Russians who keep silent."
Serhiy will not keep silent. He showed CBS News the bloodstained suitcases his family had when they were cut down by the Russian missile.
"I am alone," he told D'Agata, but he wants the world to know what happened in Irpin — what Vladimir Putin is doing to his country.
"I am hoping that what I am doing now will help others, will help us win, help to stop this war," he said. "Yes, this is hard, hard to live through this and perceive it. I want to achieve and reach the truth. I will go to the European courts. I am collecting all the information. I am collecting all this evidence. It became my mission, the last mission for my family."
The man who lost his family in an instant said their story is all he has left, and he's determined to tell it.
"CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell traveled to the Ukraine-Poland border as Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered the fastest refugee displacement crisis in Europe since World War II. O'Donnell shares firsthand accounts from Ukrainian refugees and looks at how NATO is preparing while Russia pushes the war in Ukraine close to Poland's border in the 30-minute documentary "Norah O'Donnell Reports: Crisis in Ukraine," premiering Friday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CBS News app.