Tragically, of the five members of her family, only Yaroslav, Daryna’s father, is now alive. He is the lone survivor of a Russian missile strike that hit their home in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Wednesday. Daryna, 18, her sisters Yaryna, 21, and Emilia, 7, along with their 43-year-old mother Yevhenia, were all killed while seeking shelter in the staircase of their residential building, according to Ukrainian emergency services.

Tragically, of the five members of her family, only Yaroslav, Daryna’s father, is now alive. He is the lone survivor of a Russian missile strike that hit their home in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Wednesday. Daryna, 18, her sisters Yaryna, 21, and Emilia, 7, along with their 43-year-old mother Yevhenia, were all killed while seeking shelter in the staircase of their residential building, according to Ukrainian emergency services.

Yaroslav likely survived because he was in the family apartment at the time of the missile strike. He had gone back to grab some water for the family, believing that the staircase would be the safest place. His survival has left him as the sole bearer of the family’s tragic story, a painful reminder of the randomness of war.

Yaroslav likely survived because he was in the family apartment at the time of the missile strike. He had gone back to grab some water for the family, believing that the staircase would be the safest place. His survival has left him as the sole bearer of the family’s tragic story, a painful reminder of the randomness of war.

Yevhenia, the mother, and the two older girls were also active members of the Ukrainian Scouts movement. The Scouts described Yevhenia as a “creative, intelligent, positive, and bright personality.” The staircase where the Bazylevych family perished was believed to be a safe haven in a city that had been considered one of the safer areas in Ukraine.

Lviv, located in western Ukraine near the border with Poland, had been regarded as a refuge from the war, with tens of thousands of internally displaced people from eastern Ukraine seeking shelter there. Its distance from Russia meant that missiles and drones took longer to reach the city, giving the Ukrainian military more time to intercept them. However, this week has proven to be exceptionally deadly for Ukraine, with the four members of the Bazylevych family among seven people killed in Lviv on Wednesday. On Tuesday, two Russian missiles struck a military educational facility in Poltava, resulting in the deaths of 53 people and injuring more than 270 others.