Writing in her college application letter, Daryna Bazylevych described her family as “incredibly close knit and harmonious.” She spoke of her parents’ infinite support and the way they told stories about Ukraine’s history to her and her sisters. “They are the strongest pillar in my life and they help me overcome any obstacle,” she wrote.

Of the five members of her family, only Yaroslav, Daryna’s father, is now alive, a lone survivor of a Russian strike on their home in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Wednesday.

According to eyewitnesses, Daryna, 18, her sisters Yaryna, 21, and Emilia, 7, and their 43-year-old mother Yevhenia were killed while sheltering in the staircase of their residential building, the Ukrainian emergency services said.

It Is likely that Yaroslav survived only because he was in the family apartment when the missile hit the building. He popped over to grab some water for the family — it was him who went because the staircase was meant to be the safe place.

The deaths of the three sisters and their mother caused a huge outpouring of grief among people in Lviv and across Ukraine.

Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, said the eldest girl, Yaryna, worked in the town hall as part of the “Lviv – Youth Capital of Europe 2025” initiative.

Daryna, the middle sister, was a scholarship student of Ukrainian culture at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. She had just began her second year.

“This is a great and irreparable loss. There are no words that can describe this grief. Let us pray for the souls of the innocent victims. Let us pray for Yaroslav, the father,” the university said in a statement.

Yevhenia, the mother, and the two older girls were members of the Ukrainian Scouts movement. In a statement, the Scouts described Yevhenia as a “creative, intelligent, positive and bright personality.”

The staircase where the Bazylevyches died was meant to be a safe place in a safe city.

Lviv lies in western Ukraine, near the border with Poland, and it has always been seen as one of the safest places in the country.

Tens of thousands of internally displaced people from eastern parts of Ukraine are living in Lviv. Russia is far away, which means missiles and drones take longer to reach the city – giving the Ukrainian military more time to shoot them down.

It has been an exceptionally deadly week for Ukraine — the four members of the Bazylevych family were among seven people killed in Lviv on Wednesday. On Tuesday, two Russian missiles hit a military educational facility in Poltava, killing 53 people and injuring more than 270 others. (CNN: Text, Excluding Headline)

•Police officers and emergency workers stand in front of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine September 4, 2024. REUTERS/Roman Baluk

Update news