A Russian drone strike on a crowded park in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region has killed six people, including young children, in one of the most harrowing attacks on civilians of the month.
Russian forces hit the central park in the settlement of Nova Vodolaha at about 4:30 p.m. on October 19, when the park was full of families with children. Preliminary findings by investigators indicate a Geran-3 drone was used. The blast damaged a cafe building near the strike site, and images released by regional police showed a burnt-out baby stroller and damaged playground equipment.
Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said the victims included two women and an infant in a stroller, and he stressed the attack had no military objective. “Yet another Russian strike against civilians. An attack on children that made no military sense,” he said. The injured rose to 15, including seven children, with resuscitation teams rushing some of the wounded to hospitals in Kharkiv.
Zelenskyy names the youngest victim
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy identified one of the children killed as Anhelina, a girl just over a year old who had been in a stroller. Her mother, Inna, died in the hospital, he said. Zelenskyy called the strike an “absolute atrocity” and posted photos he described as horrific evidence of the war’s toll on civilians.
“We must protect lives. Ukraine needs air defense,” Zelenskyy said, renewing his appeal to Kyiv’s partners to strengthen the country’s protection against drones and missiles. He also demanded that sanctions against Russia not be lifted until the killings stop.
War crime investigation opened
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office opened a pre-trial investigation into a war crime resulting in deaths under Ukraine’s criminal code. Emergency responders, police, and explosives specialists continued working at the scene, checking the area for unexploded ordnance.
The strike came as newly released United Nations figures showed civilian deaths and injuries in Ukraine jumped 85 percent in September compared with the same month last year, with the first two weeks of October described by UN monitors as among the deadliest periods for civilians in years. For the grieving families of Nova Vodolaha, those statistics now have names: a baby in a stroller, her mother, and the others who had simply come to the park on a Monday afternoon.
