A victim of Russia's murderous war in Ukraine
Putting a face on the horror of the war in Ukraine is difficult, often impossible. This is Tatiana Perebeinis, who along with her two daughters and a family friend was killed in the mortar attack in Irpin yesterday. The company has numerous employees who are Ukrainian and still in the country attempting to move their families to safety.
MSNBC just interviewed Lindsey Addario, who took the famous photo of the bodies on the street in Irpin for the New York Times. She described the scene just before the deadly mortar round struck. Civilians were crossing the street trying to get away from the shelling. She said mortar rounds began hitting a distance away from the intersection where the civilians were crossing and moved closer and closer until finally the round struck the four civilians and killed them, including Tatiana Perebeinis, above. This means there was a Russian spotter somewhere nearby who was in contact with the mortar team and “adjusted fire” until the final round struck the civilians. If I had any doubt previously that the Russians were intentionally killing civilians, this description by Addario ended it. You don’t adjust mortar fire to get closer and closer to civilians unless you are targeting them.
Below is the death notice SE Ranking posted on Facebook about their employee:
We are devastated to say that yesterday our dear colleague and friend Tatiana Perebeinis, the chief accountant of SE Ranking, was killed together with her two kids by Russian mortar artillery.
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 Tania and her kids Alise and Nikita remain just statistics. Her family became the victim of the unprovoked fire on civilians, which under any law is a crime against humanity.
The Russian army are criminals, and they should be stopped.
Our hearts are broken. Our prayers are for all Ukrainians, who are fighting for their right to exist.
It is agonizing to be just standing by…
Fury.
The location was also across a relatively narrow street from a church, which was damaged. I was a U.S. Army gunner on an 81mm mortar. I don’t know the size of the Russian mortar rounds, but mortars are designed as anti-personnel weapons to use against advancing or dug-in enemy troops. A fleeing mom and her kids are not enemy troops. Putin is a thug. His army is made up of thugs. Eventually, NATO will find itself in ground combat with them. Let’s do it now before they murder more moms and kids.