A father and his three small children were killed, while their 35-week pregnant mother was seriously wounded in an overnight Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, officials said Wednesday.
The strike completely destroyed the brick house and set it on fire, with the family trapped under the rubble, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
The 34-year-old father and his three children – twin boys aged 2 and their 1-year-old sister – were killed, while rescue workers pulled the mother alive from the rubble, prosecutors said. She sustained blast injuries, a traumatic brain injury, burns and hearing loss, they said.
During the almost four years since Russia invaded its neighbor, and despite a new push over the past year in U.S.-led peace efforts, Ukrainian civilians have endured constant aerial attacks.
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.
