A Russian drone attack destroyed a home in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region overnight, killing a father and his three young children and critically injuring their mother, who is 35 weeks pregnant, officials said Wednesday.
The strike flattened the house and sparked a fire, trapping the family under the debris, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office. The 34-year-old father and his children — twin boys aged two and a one-year-old daughter — died at the scene. Rescue teams pulled the mother alive from the rubble. She suffered blast injuries, burns, a traumatic brain injury, hearing loss, and remains in critical condition, prosecutors added.
The drone that hit the town of Bohodukhiv was identified as a Geran-2, a Russian-made variant of the Iranian Shahed drone. Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia launched 129 long-range drones across the country overnight, nearly four years into the conflict, despite ongoing U.S.-led peace efforts.
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In a separate incident, a Ukrainian drone strike ignited a fire at an industrial plant in the Russian city of Volgograd. Fragments of the drone also damaged a nearby apartment building, Volgograd region Governor Andrei Bocharov said.
Overnight drone attacks prompted temporary flight suspensions at eight Russian airports, officials confirmed.
The latest strikes underscore the continuing toll of the war on civilians and infrastructure in both countries.