Russian drone strike kills three Ukrainian toddlers and their father
By Ivana Kottasová, Kostya Gak, CNN
(CNN) — Three toddlers and their father were killed in a Russian drone strike in eastern Ukraine that also injured their pregnant mother and their grandmother, local emergency services said.
The family was seeking safety in the town of Bohodukhiv, some 60 kilometers (38 miles) west of Kharkiv, having fled their home further east just days ago, Ukrainian police said in a statement posted on Telegram.
Volodymyr Belyi, the town’s mayor, said the strike was a “crime that is beyond human comprehension.”
“We lost the most precious thing we had – our future. Three little angels: two one-year-old boys and a two-year-old girl,” he said in a statement.
He said the children’s father, who was 34, died in the strike, while their mother and grandmother were “fighting for their lives” in hospital.
Police said the mother, who is 35 weeks pregnant, suffered head wounds and burns. The home where the family was staying was “completely destroyed” in the strike and subsequent fire, they added.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack showed Russia was not serious about peace.
“Each such Russian strike undermines confidence in everything that is being done diplomatically to end this war,” he said in a statement on Telegram.
The-CNN-Wire
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