A Russian drone strike has tragically claimed the lives of a father and his three young children in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, seriously wounding their 35-week pregnant mother, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
The drone strike completely destroyed the brick house, setting it ablaze and trapping the family under the rubble, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
The 34-year-old father and his three children – twin boys aged two and their one-year-old sister – were killed. Rescue workers pulled the mother alive from the debris, though she sustained blast injuries, a traumatic brain injury, burns, and hearing loss.
This devastating incident highlights the relentless aerial assaults Ukrainian civilians have faced for almost four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, despite international peace initiatives.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that last year marked the deadliest period for civilians since 2022, as Russia intensified its bombardments behind the front line.
The war killed 2,514 civilians and injured 12,142 in Ukraine in 2025 — 31 per cent higher than in 2024, it said.
The drone that struck the Kharkiv town of Bohodukhiv was identified as a Geran-2, a Russian-made version of an Iranian Shahed drone.
“We lost what is most precious — our future,” Bohodukhiv mayor Volodymyr Bielyi wrote on his Facebook page. “There are no words to console the family; there is no prayer that could heal the heart of a mother who has lost her children.”
Bielyi said the mother is fighting for her life in hospital and announced three days of mourning, when national flags will be lowered and all entertainment and organized public events will be cancelled.
“We will endure. We will remember. We will never forgive this horror on our land,” Bielyi wrote.
Bohodukhiv had a pre-war population of 15,000. It is located some 22 kilometres (13 miles) from the Russian border. It wasn’t immediately clear whether there was any Ukrainian military infrastructure near the house.
“Each such Russian strike undermines trust in everything being done through diplomacy to end this war, and again and again proves that only strong pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine are the real key to stopping the killings,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of committing countless war crimes since the start of the war, and European institutions have made efforts to hold Russia accountable.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has multiple outstanding arrest warrants for Russian officials for war crimes. They include President Vladimir Putin, who is accused of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Tuesday that Ukraine is making “many changes” in the way it fights Russia’s aerial attacks, especially with short-range air defenses. Training and replenishing new troops are also key issues, he said.
Ukraine has been short-handed against Russia’s bigger army, though Moscow‘s forces have made only creeping progress in their invasion.
Wide-scale desertions and 2 million draft-dodgers are among a raft of challenges for Ukraine, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said last month.
Zelenskyy has also pressed Western partners to provide more sophisticated air defense systems and missiles to help defend Ukraine.
Military aid sent to Kyiv dropped by 13 per cent last year compared with the annual average between 2022 and 2024, as US President Donald Trump stopped sending American weapons, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks such support.
However, European countries have taken up much of the slack, increasing their military aid by 67 per cent compared with the 2022-2024 period, the institute said in a report Wednesday.
Foreign humanitarian and financial aid to Ukraine fell by 5 per cent last year in comparison with the previous three years, it said.
Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia launched 129 long-range drones at Ukraine last night.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an industrial plant in the city of Volgograd, authorities said.
Volgograd region’s Gov. Andrei Bocharov said that drone fragments also damaged an apartment building.
Eight Russian airports briefly suspended flights overnight because of drone attacks, officials said.
Source: independent.co.uk