A Ukrainian man was waiting anxiously to hear from his family members, who were evacuating their town near Kyiv, when he saw their bodies in a photo on Twitter, he told The New York Times in an interview .

Images circulated around the world show four people lying bloodied and motionless on the pavement in Irpin, Ukraine, after they were fired on by Russian troops.

Three of them were Serhiy Perebyinis loved ones: his wife, Tatiana, his 18-year-old son, Mykyta, and 9-year-old daughter, Alisa. The fourth was Anatoly Berezhnyi, a 26-year-old church volunteer who was helping the family, according to the Times .

I recognized the luggage and that is how I knew, Perebyinis told the newspaper .

Times photographer Lynsey Addario captured a widely viewed image of the four civilians that appeared on the papers front page.

Perebyinis, a computer programmer, was not with his family because he was caring for his mother in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, he told The Washington Post . He said his two dogs had also died.

I lost everyone and lost the meaning of life, he told the Post, calling what happened to his family a war crime.