Ukrainian Dad Leaves To Buy Bread, Dies From Russian Shelling

Artillery shelling in the besieged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv resulted in the death of an elderly man who was out to buy bread, according to reports.

Victor Gubarev, 79, was killed by a fragment from a shell that landed in front of his Soviet-era apartment complex Monday, Reuters reported.

The former vehicle fleet manager for the Russian majority state-owned energy corporation Gazprom was out to buy bread at the time of the incident, his wife Lyubov said.

Gubarev's only child, English teacher Yana Bachek, was preparing an online lesson in the kitchen of her one-bedroom apartment located close to her parents' home when the shelling started.

She later went outside and discovered her father's body. Her reaction was caught by photographers who had arrived with ambulances shortly after the blasts.

"I am sorry. I want to forget it. The picture. The one picture I saw him," Bachek was quoted as saying.

She is now waiting for her father to be buried, but normal funerals have reportedly become impossible as the number of dead has grown.

"It's not like we used to do - cemetery, grave, a special place where I can be separate from other people, to be calm, to speak, to cry, to put out the Easter cake," Bachek said, referring to a Ukrainian memorial custom.

The loaf of bread Gubarev went out to buy remained wrapped in plastic on a table in the hallway while his family waits for news.

"The bread was in blood. Now I can’t keep it in my hands, but I want to because it is a piece of my dad. It was the last thing he had in his hands," Bachek said.

It was unclear who was responsible for the shelling that killed Gubarev, but Russian forces have bombarded Kharkiv almost every day since they started their invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to reports.

A total of 2,345 civilians in Ukraine have died and 2,919 have been injured as a result of the conflict, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) claimed in its most recent civilian casualties report.

The actual figures are "considerably higher" as the receipt of information from some locations has been delayed and many reports are still pending verification, according to the agency.

"Most" of the casualties were "caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and missiles and air strikes," the OHCHR said.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in its invasion of Ukraine amid allegations that its forces targeted schools, hospitals and residential areas.