Pensioner waits at missile attack site to identify bodies of family, presumed dead

A drone view shows the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava, Ukraine February 1, 2025. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via REUTERS

POLTAVA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian military pensioner Ihor Yavorskyi spent all day Saturday at the site of a Russian missile attack to discover what he presumed was the inevitable -- identifying the bodies of three family members he was certain were killed in the strike.

Yavorskyi, 61, stood together with other anxious residents alongside rubble in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava. All were waiting patiently as emergency crews retrieved the bodies of victims from part of an apartment block reduced to rubble in the assault.