God Bless the Man who Needs that Dog...

"Be near me... Be near."

A Silicon Valley employee and her children are the subjects of photos so devastating that they shocked the world: a Ukrainian family lying dead on the pavement, killed by Russian mortar fire while trying to flee the conflict. ... Palo Alto startup SE Ranking confirmed Wednesday that the photo depicts its chief accountant, Tatiana Perebeinis, 43, along with her daughter, Alise, 9, and son, Nikita, 18, who were killed by Russian forces as they tried to flee the town of Irpin, a suburb about 15 minutes from Kyiv. They had just dashed across a partially destroyed bridge over the Irpin River into Kyiv when a mortar hit. ...

When the Russian invasion started, Perebeinis initially stayed in Irpin, where she and her family lived, because her mother was sick and her son, at 18, was in the age group of males not allowed to leave the country in case they are needed to defend Ukraine, Khirvonina said. Perebeinis didn’t want to leave her son behind, Khirvonina said. He had just started university this year.

“She always talked about him, how smart he was,” Khirvonina said. “She was a great mother; giving her kids everything she could.”

But after Irpin was surrounded, a bomb hit the family’s building, right above their apartment.

“They couldn’t stay in their apartment anymore; they spent all their time in the basement where it was cold with no food, light, heat, anything,” Khirvonina said.

...

Perebeinis was hired in 2016 as an accountant at SE Ranking’s Kyiv office and worked her way up to head of the department, a position equivalent to chief financial officer, Khirvonina said. The company, which develops tools for search engine optimization, was founded in 2013 by natives of Belarus. CEO Valery Kurilov, who is one of the founders, lives in Ukraine, Khirvonina said.

Many U.S. tech companies have a presence in Ukraine, which is known for a strong education system with an emphasis on technology skills....

Sergii Perebeinis, Tatiana’s husband, who was not with them as they tried to flee, shared photos of his wife and children on his Facebook page. ...

The photo of the deceased family was replete with heartbreaking details, including their roller suitcases, the children’s backpacks and a green dog carrier. “A dog could be heard barking,” wrote a New York Times reporter who witnessed the attack.

Sergii Perebeinis wrote on Facebook that at least one of the dogs, a Yorkshire terrier, survived, although its leg was amputated. 

“Hoping for his strength,” he wrote. “He is a tough guy. Thanks to all those who care. Thanks to the journalist who showed humanity.”

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But we rocked his butt with a 12-inch cut

called Disco Kryptonite...

now superman had come to town to see who he could rock.

he blew away 'ery crew he faced... until he reached our block. 

his speakers were 3 stories high, with woofers made o' steel.

and when he turned his power on, he said, i'm so for real...

 But... 

Rinse and repeat. 

How's that war going for us, friendlies? Free Brittney. We're holding at 3.99 basic unleaded here...

Gotta end this soon, tho.

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, this is about when the U.N. would step in and negotiate a retreat/truce/permanent cease-fire until the next necessary invasion/conflict, right?  The aggressor pulled back from bombing hospitals... those under fire needing to bury their scores of wartime dead...  A nice negotiated retreat that allows both sides to save face and return to a precarious peace, planning the next incursions against their longtime ethnic enemies as the weapons are stockpiled... We've been here before, this world.  Shame to blow up the precedents not in the name of saving lives, but to clear out the country of those remaining before Ukraine is rebuilt, her infrastructure, from the ground up.

"Let 'em up easy..." 

It'll save lives.  ~Lincoln.