Editor’s note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Two children were among six people killed in a Russian drone strike on a park in Nova Vodolaha, Kharkiv Oblast, on Oct. 19, according to updated casualty figures released by Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
The victims included two girls, aged eight and one, three women aged 28, 34, and 36, and a man around 40 years old, Syniehubov said, adding that at least 15 people were injured, including seven children.
The drone struck the town’s central park while many people, including families with children, were there, Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said. He also pointed out that the attack made no military sense.
The attack occurred at around 4:30 p.m. local time, the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office said. According to preliminary findings, Russian forces used a Geran-3 drone for the attack.
“This cannot be treated as just another news story. The world must not get used to the killing of Ukrainian children and civilians,” Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Telegram.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack an “absolute atrocity.”
He said a girl called Anhelina, a little over a year old, was killed in the park, and her mother Inna passed away in hospital. He also identified another victim of the attack as a 14-year-old girl.
“These are horrific photos, but behind them lie shattered lives and the truth about this war. We must protect lives. Ukraine needs air defense,” Zelensky said. “We ask that sanctions against Russia NOT be lifted until the killings stop.”
Prosecutors have opened a pre-trial investigation into a possible war crime.
In Kharkiv Oblast, Russia attacked the city of Kharkiv and 17 settlements in the surrounding region, injuring 11 people, over the past day, Syniehubov said.