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A horrific Russian drone attack on a busy central park in eastern Ukraine has killed six people, including a baby in a buggy and an 11-year-old girl. The devastating strike targeted Nova Vodolaha, a town in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, at around 4.30pm local time (2.30pm BST) on Monday (October 19). Families with small children were enjoying the park when the explosive drone detonated, damaging a nearby cafe and tearing through the crowded public space. At least 15 other people were injured in the explosion, seven of them children, regional officials confirmed.
Ukrainian officials have confirmed the identities of the deceased following local authority updates, revealing that six lives were lost in the strike. Among the victims were 14-month-old Anhelina, who was killed in her buggy, and her mother, Inna, who died of her injuries after being rushed to hospital. The attack also claimed the life of an 11-year-old girl whose identity has not yet been released, in addition to three other adults, two women aged 28 and 36, and a man aged around 40.
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ivan Vyhivskyi, condemned the strike, stressing that the attack was launched when the park was filled with families and “made no military sense”. Emergency services personnel and law enforcement officers flooded the scene after the strike, searching the surrounding area for unexploded ordnance while providing emergency treatment to the injured. Volodymyr Zelensky called the targeted strike an “absolute atrocity”, sharing painful details about young Anhelina and her mother. “These are terrible photos, but behind them lie destroyed lives and the truth about this war,” said the Ukrainian president. “We have to protect lives. Ukraine needs air defense.”
Mr. Zelensky urged international partners to maintain strict economic pressure against Moscow after the civilian casualties. “We ask that the sanctions against Russia are NOT lifted until the killings stop,” he added.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, responded to the call for global condemnation on Telegram: “This cannot be treated as just another news story. The world must not get used to the killing of Ukrainian children and civilians.”
Preliminary findings from the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office indicate that Russian forces used a Geran-3 type drone – a Russian-designed variant of the Iranian-designed Shahed loitering munition – to strike the city center. Prosecutors have formally opened a pre-trial investigation into potential war crimes leading to loss of life.
The attack on Nova Vodolaha comes as part of a larger wave of shelling across eastern Ukraine. According to Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov, Russian forces targeted the regional capital of Kharkiv and 17 surrounding settlements over a 24-hour period, wounding another 11 civilians.
