A Russian drone attack on the central park of the small town of Nova Vodolaha in Kharkiv region killed six people on Monday, including two children. According to the Kharkiv region prosecutor's office, 15 people were also injured, among them seven children.
According to the authorities, the attack took place on Monday, 19 October, at around 16:30 local time. According to preliminary findings, the Russian army used a Geran-3 type drone, as the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office reported according to Ukrinform. The prosecutor’s office has opened a pre-trial investigation into a war crime that led to the death of people (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code).
Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi wrote on Telegram that the drone hit the park when many people were there, including families with children. According to him, two women and a baby lying in a pram were killed. The attack had no military purpose whatsoever, Vyhivskyi stressed.
The governor of Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, later gave the names and ages of the dead: three women aged 28, 34 and 36, a man aged about 40, and two girls. The girls were eleven and about one year old; the youngest victim was born in August 2025.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the girl killed in the pram was named Angelina, and her mother Inna died in hospital. “These are terrible photos, but behind them are destroyed lives and the truth about this war,” Zelensky said. “We ask that sanctions against Russia NOT be lifted as long as the murders continue.”
“The world must not get used to the killing of Ukrainian children and civilians.”
The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote on Telegram that this must not be treated as just another news item: “The world must not get used to the killing of Ukrainian children and civilians.” Zelensky also called the attack an “absolute atrocity”.
According to Syniehubov, rescuers from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (DSNS) and emergency doctors were deployed. The injured were taken to hospitals in Kharkiv. Ministry of Interior personnel provided first aid and searched the area for explosive objects. According to the prosecutor’s office, a café building was also damaged.
The town is repeatedly a target of Russian attacks.
The attack on a busy park in the afternoon comes at a time when Ukraine is expanding its air defence and demanding additional systems from its allies. Zelensky linked the demand for more air defence with an appeal to partners not to ease sanctions against Russia. None of the available sources names concrete commitments from the allies.
Editor’s note: The casualty figures and age details are based on information from the regional administration and the prosecutor’s office on the evening of 19 October; the authorities do not rule out further victims.
Source: www.pravda.com.ua
