A proud father poses with his wife and three daughters on a warm summer’s day. The photograph speaks of familial love, contentment and a moment of peace.
Alas, such happiness is no protection against Russia’s murderous aggression in Ukraine.
Following yesterday’s missile and drone blitz on the historic city centre of Lviv, only the father, Yaroslav Bazylevych, is left alive.
His wife Yevhenia and their daughters Yaryna, 21, Daryna, 18, and seven-year-old Emilia were all killed when their apartment received a direct hit in the early hours of the morning.
The Reuters news agency took a heartbreaking picture of a dazed and bloodied Mr Bazylevych following rescue workers as they carried the body of one of his daughters on a stretcher.
Before tragedy struck: Yaroslav Bazylevych with wife, Yevhenia, and Yaryna, Emilia and Daryna
A man tries to comfort bloodied Yaroslav Bazylevych after the deadly attack
The Reuters news agency took a heartbreaking picture of a dazed and bloodied Mr Bazylevych following rescue workers as they carried the body of one of his daughters on a stretcher
A drone view shows a residential building heavily damaged during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine September 4, 2024
The bereaved father was one of 64 people injured in the barrage. In total, seven died in this city, a few hours before breakfast time.
By chance, Mail cameraman Jamie Wiseman and I witnessed the attack and its aftermath.
We were on our way to report on the Donbas front line, some 600 miles to the east. But the tragedy demonstrated that nowhere and no one in Ukraine is safe.
All the Bazylevych girls were bright and actively engaged with the world around them. They had hope.
Yaryna was working for the city’s civilian authorities in an office that was preparing for ‘Lviv – European Youth Capital 2025’.
Daryna – the one holding a bunch of sunflowers in the happy family photo on the right – was a second-year cultural studies student at the Ukrainian Catholic University.
She was a keen civic volunteer, who also studied drama in a theatre studio. Emilia was still at primary school, of course.
All were wiped out in a bombardment of hypersonic and cruise missiles and Shaheed drones.
Lviv’s mayor, Andrii Sadovyi, posted the Bazylevych family portrait on Telegram and wrote: ‘After today’s Russian attack, the only person in this photo who remains alive is the man.
‘His wife, Yevhenia, and their three daughters – Yaryna, Daryna and Emilia – were killed in their own home.
A view shows a burning residential building damaged during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine September 4, 2024
Lviv’s mayor sent ‘heartfelt condolences’ to Yaroslav after his family was wiped out during Wednesday’s deadly attack
Two and a half years into this terrible war, it is impossible not to be moved by the fate of the Bazylevych family
‘In the heart of Europe, Russia is exterminating Ukrainians, entire families. Russians are killing our children, our future.’
The mayor added: ‘I don’t know what words to use to support the father of the family, Yaroslav.
‘We are all with you today. Heartfelt condolences.’
Jamie Wiseman and I were staying in central Lviv, less than a mile from the scene of the tragedy. I was woken by the air raid sirens a little after 5am.
Almost at once, the city’s air defences went – thunderously – into action. The sky above the city centre was lit by explosions and the thin beams of searchlights seeking the Shaheed suicide drones that cruised overhead.
The onslaught was brief and deadly. There was a series of huge bangs and one massive explosion that triggered car alarms.
There followed a brief silence ended by the wail of emergency vehicles’ sirens. By then, the Bazylevych family had been destroyed.
Jamie and I first approached the scene of the carnage along Zaliznychna Street, near the main railway station.
The wreckage of a Shaheed suicide drone was lying in the middle of the road and the walls of residential blocks and business premises all along Zaliznychna were spattered with shrapnel holes, their windows broken.
The manner in which a row of horse chestnut trees had lost their top branches and the windscreens of parked cards were blown downwards, suggested there had been a large airburst explosion above the street.
More severe damage could be found off Brativ Mikhnovs’kykh Street, a short distance away.
Here, a residential apartment block had lost its entire top storey to a direct hit, leaving collateral damage in the roads all around, including a number of burnt-out cars.
One moving aspect of the aftermath was the teams of old ladies wearing high-vis jackets who went out into the streets with brooms, shovels and refuse sacks, clearing the mounds of broken glass and stone from road and pavement.
Clearly, Lviv has been hurt, but its spirit remains unbroken.
Thousands of other civilians have already perished and many more deaths will come.
But two and a half years into this terrible war, it is impossible not to be moved by the fate of the Bazylevych family – and the abject grief of its only surviving member.
Firefighters console devastated Yaroslav Bazylevych after his wife and three daughters were killed in a Russian air strike
Deeply distressing footage of his destroyed house shows the body of his nine-year-old daughter Emilia lying next to a wall, her blonde hair poking out of the rubble
Horrific images circulated on social media this morning showed bewildered victims staggering away from the scene of missile blasts covered in blood and dust as rescuers dragged corpses out of the rubble on stretchers
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