'This Is A War Crime': Pulitzer-winning Photojournalist Defends Taking Photo Of Dead Ukrainian Family
A U.S. journalist has defended a horrifying picture she took of a Ukrainian family lying dead after trying to flee the city of Irpin.
Update
The chilling photo of four dead Ukrainian civilians - mother and her two children, along with a church volunteer - caused worldwide condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Those killed in the incident were wife and children of Serhiy Perebyinis, who only discovered about their deaths via graphic photos on Twitter, as per The New York Times.
A photograph of the family and volunteer covered in blood and lying lifeless was captured by Pulitzer-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario. The picture had spread quickly over the weekend, capturing the heartbreaking human toll of Russia's war.
In an interview with The New York Times, Perebyinis confirmed that his wife, Tetiana Perebyinis, 43, and their two children, Mykyta, 18, and Alisa, 9, as well as Anatoly Berezhnyi, 26, were the victims in the photograph.
A U.S. journalist has defended a horrifying picture she took of a Ukrainian family lying dead after trying to flee the city of Irpin.
The photo clicked by Lynsey Addario, a Pulitzer-winning photojournalist, shows four Ukrainian civilians, including two children, lying dead as they just reached capital Kyiv from the neighbouring Irpin city.
MSNBC
The New York Times carried the photo on its front page on Monday.
According to CBS News, the family was intentionally targeted by the Russian military as they attempted to cross a bridge to enter the capital on Sunday.
The woman and the two children were immediately killed in the mortar shelling. A man travelling with them still had a pulse but was unconscious as Ukrainian soldiers tried to save him. However, he died later, The New York Times reported.
Residents of Irpin have been trying to flee their city and enter Kyiv using a battered bridge, which had been blown up by Ukrainian forces to slow the Russian advance.
Lynsey Addario/NYT
"I went forward and found a place sort of behind a wall and started photographing," Addario told CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell.
"Within minutes, a series of mortars fell increasingly closer and closer to our position until one landed about 30 feet from where I was standing and it killed a mother and her two children," she said.
Addario was left shocked after witnessing the petrifying scene.
Reuters
"I'm a mother, and when I'm working, I try to stay very focused. I try to keep, sort of, the camera to my eye. But of course, it was very emotional. First of all, I had just been sprayed with gravel from a mortar round that could have killed us very easily. So I was shaken up, and when we were told that we could run across the street by our security adviser, I ran and I saw this family splayed out and I saw these little moon boots and puffy coat," she said.
Even though Addario felt it was disrespectful to take the photo, she thought that she had to.
"This is a war crime," she said.
Ą°I think itĄ¯s really important that people around the world see these images,Ąą the photojournalist added.
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