CNN's Erin Burnett Cries While Interviewing Ukrainian Dad Who Learned His Family Was Killed Via Twitter

"I saw a photo on Twitter and I recognized my children," Serhiy Perebyinis said of learning that his wife of 23 years, along with their son, 18, and daughter, 9, were killed by Russian mortar shelling

Erin Burnett
Photo: CNN

CNN newscaster Erin Burnett tearfully interviewed a Ukrainian father of two who recently learned that his wife and two children were killed in Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

After sharing condolences for his "unbearable loss," Burnett asked Serhiy Perebyinis on CNN on Wednesday if he has been able to recover the bodies of his wife and two children in order to bury them.

Perebyinis answered that he had, after driving for three days and breaking in to the site where they were, even managing to recover the remains of a family pet dog.

While Perebyinis was away in eastern Ukraine taking care of his ailing mother, Tetiana tried to flee with her children, according to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Burnett also asked Perebyinis about the last conversation he had with his wife Tetiana the night before she was killed.

"That was the day when already there was no water, electricity, gas, and we discussed — I spoke to her at 10 p.m., even though at that point there was no connectivity either. But I managed to get through and had a discussion about potential evacuation," he said.

He then described the events leading up to her death, saying, "At the last moment however, the convoy she was planning to travel with was shelled at and fired at. And then she came on foot to the bridge, trying to make an escape on foot."

Remembering Tetiana, Perebyinis said they had been married for 23 years, and that in 2012 they "even had a second wedding at the church, [because] we wanted to make the marriage lawful in the skies above us."

"She was a very cheerful person, she was the financial director of a large American company," he continued. "We spent lots of time together as a family. We loved bicycles, in winter we went skiing, and she loved very much planting flowers at her dacha, countryside cottage."

Tetiana was 43 at the time of her death and was chief accountant at SE Rankings, a Silicon Valley tech company, Fortune reports.

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It was at that point that Burnett asked Perebyinis about his children, and she broke down into tears.

The grieving father and husband then explained how he utilized Google geolocation to remain abreast of his family's activities and whereabouts during the war, noticing the morning of their deaths over the weekend how their location on Google Maps was "unusual."

"I noticed that there was an unusual geolocation between Kyiv and their pin. And then 20 minutes later, her phone moved to another location, to a hospital in Kyiv. And I suspected something was wrong," he said.

Perebyinis then said he asked friends to go to the hospital to find out any information about his family.

Ultimately, Perebyinis learned of the fate of his family via a news item on Twitter.

"And then I saw a photo on Twitter, and I recognized my children. I recognized their things and their clothes. And I called my friends to say that the children are dead. Their bodies are lying on pavement," he told Burnett.

Of his kids, Perebiynis said that "they were normal, cheerful children."

He explained that his son Mykita was 18 at the time of his death and in second year of university. He wanted to become an IT professional, his father said, and studied programming.

"My daughter [Alisa] was nine years old. She liked dancing, painting. She studied English," Perebyinis said.

Russia's attack on Ukraine continues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.

Details of the fighting change by the day, but hundreds of civilians have already been reported dead or wounded, including children. Millions of Ukrainians have also fled, the United Nations says.

"You don't know where to go, where to run, who you have to call. This is just panic," Liliya Marynchak, a 45-year-old teacher in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, told PEOPLE of the moment her city was bombed — one of numerous accounts of bombardment by the Russians.

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The invasion, ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has drawn condemnation around the world and increasingly severe economic sanctions against Russia.

With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.

Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia, and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend. "Nobody is going to break us, we're strong, we're Ukrainians," he told the European Union in a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, "Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness."

The Russian attack on Ukraine is an evolving story, with information changing quickly. Follow PEOPLE's complete coverage of the war here, including stories from citizens on the ground and ways to help.

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