Ukrainian family recently reunited ripped apart again after dad killed in Russian missile strike

A father who refused to leave his home will now be remembered by his family who've been robbed of their only reason to stay, as ITV News Correspondent Dan Rivers reports from Ukraine

There were few bright points in the gruelling last few months of covering the war in Ukraine, but getting to know Anasia and her family was one of them.

She had helped to tell the story of the siege of Kharkiv with bravery, honesty and clarity.

Anasia's video diary touched thousands around the world. I was amazed when I caught up with her this summer that she had received offers of help and money from so many.

Her father Georgiy had featured in one of our reports, when we had accompanied Anasia back to her home for the first time since she was forced to leave.

He had remained throughout, despite the dangers, determined not to abandon the family house.

Yesterday I learned of the terrible news that Georgiy, who was 64, had been killed in a missile strike.

ITV News followed Anasia and her mother on an emotional journey back to their home city in May where they reunited with dad Georgiy after two months apart

He’d been standing on his balcony when the barrage was unleashed at 10 in the morning.

The photos and video of the aftermath show the shredded remains of trees in the garden and the building peppered with shrapnel.

Anasia is beside herself with shock and grief.

The reunion we’d witnessed when she had returned is no longer a memory of a family brought back together, having all survived the war, but instead those happy scenes have been tainted by the knowledge they were among the family’s last days together.

The random cruelty of the campaign against civilian targets being waged by the Russian Army finally caught up with Georgiy in a devastating split second.

It’s unlikely he was targeted any more than any other civilians in the city have been chosen for punishment.

The attacks appear mostly to be vicious acts of indiscriminate revenge at the resistance of the Ukrainian people.

There’s no doubt they are causing terror and grief, but with every death like Georgiy, I suspect the defiance will grow stronger, sowing the seeds for a generation of Ukrainians to hate Russia with every fibre of their soul.

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