The devastated Ukrainian soldier whose seven-year-old daughter and wife were killed in an Iranian missile strike said he has been frozen ever since he heard the news.

Artem Buryk was on the frontline when he learnt his only child, Anastasia - affectionately dubbed Nastya - and her 30-year-old mother, Maria Pashkurova were caught up in the blast.

They were killed alongside Nastya's grandmother, Olena Pashkurova, 60, and cousins Kostiantyn Totvych, 9, and Illia Pashkurov, 13.

'Honestly, I don't even know what to call this,' Artem told the Mail, speaking for the first time of his heartbreak. 'I've never experienced anything like it, nothing even close.'

Just hours before speaking to the Mail, his wife's death was confirmed after rescue workers found her body in the rubble.