Russian Drone Kills Father and Three Children in Ukraine Incident

Three days of mourning have been declared in Bohodukhiv, a town in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region near the Russian border. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, five people, including three young children, were killed in overnight Russian attacks on Tuesday.

A Russian drone struck a private family home in Bohodukhiv late on Tuesday, killing four and seriously injuring the pregnant mother of the family. The Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office reported that the strike destroyed the house, trapping the family beneath the rubble. Three children, aged two and one year old, along with their father, were also killed.

The mother, who is 35 weeks pregnant, was rescued from the rubble by rescue teams and suffered injuries including blast trauma, a traumatic brain injury, burns, and hearing loss. The mayor of Bohodukhiv, Volodymyr Bielyi, announced that the town would observe three days of mourning, stating that the family had lost their future.

In addition to the attack in Bohodukhiv, Russian drones targeted several districts in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region overnight, killing two more children. Ukrainian authorities reported that 129 long-range Russian drones were launched at Ukraine since Tuesday night, targeting various locations including a hospital and a railway depot.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that a railway station in the Dnipropetrovsk region was attacked early on Wednesday, damaging locomotives and infrastructure. President Zelenskyy said that ongoing attacks showed Russia’s intentions to continue fighting, rather than stopping. He emphasized the need for strong pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine to end the conflict.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces targeted Russian personnel concentration areas, drone control points, artillery systems, command posts, and other targets. Russian authorities reported that their forces shot down 108 Ukrainian drones across Russian territory overnight.

Source: Al Jazeera