Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took an even more horrific turn today.
Lynsey Addario — the 1991 Staples High School Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer — reports with words and images that “a Russian force advancing on Kyiv fired mortar shells … at a battered bridge used by evacuees fleeing the fighting.”
The attack sent “panicked civilians running, kicking up a cloud of dust and leaving three members of a family dead on the pavement.”
Addario’s photo showed that haunting scene.
Ukrainian soldiers trying to save the father of a family of 4 — the only one at that moment who still had a pulse — moments after being hit by a mortar while trying to flee Irpin, near Kyiv, today. (Photo/Lynsey Addario for The New York Times)
Addario’s report continued:
Crowds of hundreds have clustered around the damaged bridge over the Irpin River since Saturday. Ukrainian forces had blown up the bridge earlier to slow the Russian advance. Only a dozen or so Ukrainian soldiers were in the immediate area of the bridge on Sunday, not fighting but helping carry civilians’ luggage and children.
To cross a hundred yards or so of exposed street on the side of the bridge closer to Kyiv, people seeking to flee to the capital formed small groups and made a run for it together. Soldiers ran out, picked up children or luggage, and ran for cover behind a cinder block wall.
The mortar shells fell first 100 or so yards from the bridge, then shifted in a series of thunderous blasts into a section of street where people were fleeing.
Click here for the full story. (Hat tip: Ernest Lorimer)
If that photograph doesn’t absolutely tear your heart into pieces, I don’t know what will. Lynsey Addario and Tyler Hicks have put their own lives on the line for years to bring us true coverage of these world events. My hope is that they stay safe and that Russia will pay dearly for this unbelievable destruction and killing.
Thank you for your amazing coverage & prayers for your safety Lynsey & Tyler.
Grateful for your coverage and praying for your safety.
Sharing on every platform I know thanks Dan
Russian inflation is now 500%. We need to crush the country with 10,000% inflation!
When I heard CNN’s Clarissa Ward mention Lynsey by name, that she was just several meters from the mortar blast, my heart lept for her mother. OMG. Bless you and your daughter for the compelling information she delivers through her photography. She is in my thoughts every day.
Few episodes in the Russian Invasion are as raw and ugly as this one. I have followed it on Twitter. This was a family of four and then they were gone. I found myself wondering if this was Westport’s staff photographer at the NYT; now I know it was. Thank you, Lynsey, for this heart-wrenching journalism.
Andrew E, Kramer did a follow-up story (photos by Lynsey Addario) with the husband of the woman who was killed by a mortar attack, along with their two children, as they tried to cross a bridge over the Irpin River on foot. The husband found out about their deaths on Twitter because he recognized their luggage. This barbarism has to be stopped…
http://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/world/europe/ukraine-family-perebyinis-kyiv.html