KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 A Russian drone smashed into a home in Ukraine\u2019s northeastern Kharkiv region overnight, killing a father and his three small children, officials said Wednesday. The family\u2019s pregnant mother was wounded but survived.<\/p>\n
The strike completely destroyed the brick house and set it on fire, trapping the family under the rubble, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old father and his three children \u2014 2-year-old twin boys and their 1-year-old sister \u2014 were killed, while rescue workers pulled out the mother alive, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
During the almost four years since Russia launched all-out war on its neighbor<\/a>, and despite a new push over the past year in U.S.-led peace efforts<\/a>, Ukrainian civilians have endured constant aerial attacks.<\/p>\n Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022 as Russia intensified its aerial barrages behind the front line, according to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country.<\/p>\n The war killed 2,514 civilians and wounded 12,142 in Ukraine in 2025 \u2014 31% higher than in 2024, it said.<\/p>\n Mother survives<\/p>\n The drone that struck the Kharkiv town of Bohodukhiv was identified as a Geran-2, a Russian-made version of an Iranian Shahed drone.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost what is most precious \u2014 our future,\u201d Bohodukhiv mayor Volodymyr Bielyi wrote on his Facebook page. \u201cThere are no words to console the family; there is no prayer that could heal the heart of a mother who has lost her children.\u201d<\/p>\n The family was made up of two twin brothers named Ivan and Vladyslav, their sister Myroslava, and father Hryhorii, said Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration.<\/p>\n He said that the mother, Olha, had slight burns and other injuries and was later released from hospital. She was 35 weeks pregnant when the attack happened.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t immediately known if the mother\u2019s unborn baby survived, or why the prosecutor\u2019s office had earlier reported that she was severely injured.<\/p>\n Syniehubov said the family had recently evacuated from another town in the region.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was their first night at the new place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Bielyi, the mayor, announced three days of mourning, when national flags will be lowered and all entertainment and organized public events will be canceled.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will endure. We will remember. We will never forgive this horror on our land,\u201d Bielyi wrote.<\/p>\n Bohodukhiv had a prewar population of 15,000. It is located some 22 kilometers (13 miles) from the Russian border. <\/p>\n Public records show no Ukrainian military infrastructure near the house.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy says diplomacy undermined<\/p>\n \u201cEach 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,\u201d Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two people were killed and nine other wounded, including two children, in a series of drone attacks across the northern Sumy region, authorities said Wednesday. Another five people were reported wounded in an attack on a residential area in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, according to officials there, and six were wounded in the Kherson region.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy said late Tuesday that Ukraine is making \u201cmany changes\u201d in the way it fights Russia\u2019s aerial attacks, especially with short-range air defenses. Training and replenishing new troops are also key issues, he said.<\/p>\n Ukraine has been short-handed against Russia\u2019s bigger army, though Moscow\u2019s forces have made only creeping progress in their full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.<\/p>\n