Software Company Says Employee, Her Kids Killed While Leaving Ukraine City

A software company that has offices in the U.S. said on Monday that one of its employees and her two children died in Ukraine over the weekend, less than two weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.

Officials with the United Nations (U.N.) estimated earlier this week that more than 1,100 civilian casualties have occurred over the course of the fighting as of March 5, though the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) noted those numbers were "likely to be a considerable underestimate of the true numbers."

SE Ranking said one of its employees was near Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv at the time of her death on Sunday. The SEO software company, which identifies London as the location of its headquarters but also has teams based in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Palo Alto, California, said in a statement posted Monday on Facebook that the employee "was killed together with her two kids by russian mortar artillery."

The statement identified the employee as Tatiana Perebeinis, its chief accountant.

SE Ranking said Perebeinis and her children were "trying to evacuate" from Irpin, a city just outside Kyiv. Irpin "has been left without water supply, electricity, and heating," the company added.

In a Tuesday post on its blog exploring "the female faces" of the war, SE Ranking said Perebeinis and her children "were shot when Russian troops once again violated the ceasefire agreement and attacked people who were trying to flee the city destroyed by shelling."

"Our hearts are broken," the company said on Facebook. "Our prayers are for all Ukrainians, who are fighting for their right to exist."

In an earlier post on its blog dated March 1, SE Ranking said Ukrainians make up a "big part" of its team.

"Some of us have spent days on the road striving to bring our families to a safer place," the company said in the post, which focused on opportunities for people around the world to support Ukraine. "Some are still in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine, trying to do their daily routine to the sounds of air raid sirens. All of us feel scared and devastated, but also hopeful and strong."

The company wrote that it has halted operations in Russia and "won't be accepting payments from Russian customers."

According to the OHCHR, officials verified 364 civilian deaths, 25 of whom were children, in the days between the time Russia's invasion began and midnight on March 5. At least 759 people had been injured during that same time period, the OHCHR said in a Sunday report.

"Most of the casualties have been caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes," the report said.

Newsweek reached out to SE Ranking for further comment.