The place has remained the symbol of the chaos that reigned in Ukraine in the first days of the war: the Irpin Bridge, which the Ukrainian army blew up to slow down the advance of the Russian army. A few meters from this bridge, the story of a family moved the whole world. Eleven months later, the “special envoy” met Serhiy, who lost his wife and children that day.
The Irpin Bridge, destroyed by the Ukrainian army to prevent the advance of Russian vehicles, remained the symbol of the chaos that followed the February 24, 2022 invasion. In this town on the outskirts of Kiev, this was the point where civilians passed wanting to leave Ukraine at all costs.
That day, a mortar shell fell on the escape route. Four people were killed, including two children. Eleven months later, a team of “special envoys” met her father. In the explosion, Sergey Perebeinis lost his daughter, son and wife Tatiana: his whole family. Alisa was 9 years old and Mykyta, 19, studied computer science.
From the beginning of the war he himself lay at his sick mother’s bedside, 800 kilometers away from his relatives. Half of the building’s residents left in the first days of the conflict, he says. He asked his wife to wait two days so that there would be fewer people on the streets. But on March 4, their building was bombed by the Russians, and their departure had to be postponed.
A tweet from the New York Times
“On March 6, they drove to the bridge by car – the destroyed Irpin Bridge. They continued on foot in the direction of Kiev,” says Sergei. In the photo he received on his cell phone, Alisa is carrying the cat cage, Mykyta is waving and smiling. This is the last picture he has of them. “Fifteen minutes later they were dead.”
Shortly thereafter, on the New York Times website, Sergey noticed a tweet without a photo saying that a family had been killed. “I recognized her when the photo was posted,” he says. His last words to his family on the phone had been, “Forgive me for not being with you.”
Excerpt from “Special Envoy” of February 16, 2023, special evening “Ukraine, an endless war?”
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