Russian drone kills a father and 3 children in Ukraine, pregnant mother
badly injured
[February 11, 2026]
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian drone smashed into a home in Ukraine’s
northeastern Kharkiv region overnight, killing a father and his three
small children and seriously wounding their mother who is 35 weeks
pregnant, officials said Wednesday.
The strike completely destroyed the brick house and set it on fire, with
the family trapped under the rubble, according to the Kharkiv regional
prosecutor’s office.
The 34-year-old father and his three children — twin boys aged 2 and
their 1-year-old sister — were killed, while rescue workers pulled the
mother alive from the rubble, prosecutors said. She sustained blast
injuries, a traumatic brain injury, burns and hearing loss, they said.
During the almost four years since Russia invaded its neighbor, and
despite a new push over the past year in U.S.-led peace efforts,
Ukrainian civilians have endured constant aerial attacks.
Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022 as
Russia intensified its aerial barrages behind the front line, according
to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country.
The war killed 2,514 civilians and injured 12,142 in Ukraine in 2025 —
31% higher than in 2024, it said.
The drone that struck the Kharkiv town of Bohodukhiv was identified as a
Geran-2, a Russian-made version of an Iranian Shahed drone.
“We lost what is most precious — our future,” Bohodukhiv mayor Volodymyr
Bielyi wrote on his Facebook page. “There are no words to console the
family; there is no prayer that could heal the heart of a mother who has
lost her children.”
Bielyi said the mother is fighting for her life in hospital and
announced three days of mourning, when national flags will be lowered
and all entertainment and organized public events will be cancelled.
“We will endure. We will remember. We will never forgive this horror on
our land,” Bielyi wrote.
Bohodukhiv had a pre-war population of 15,000. It is located some 22
kilometers (13 miles) from the Russian border. It wasn't immediately
clear whether there was any Ukrainian military infrastructure near the
house.
“Each such Russian strike undermines trust in everything being done
through diplomacy to end this war, and again and again proves that only
strong pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine are
the real key to stopping the killings,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said on social media.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of committing countless war crimes
since the start of the war, and European institutions have made efforts
to hold Russia accountable.
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In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency
services personnel work to extinguish a fire at a private house
following a Russian air attack in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv region,
Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via
AP)
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has multiple
outstanding arrest warrants for Russian officials for war crimes.
They include President Vladimir Putin, who is accused of personal
responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Tuesday that Ukraine is making “many changes" in
the way it fights Russia's aerial attacks, especially with
short-range air defenses. Training and replenishing new troops are
also key issues, he said.
Ukraine has been short-handed against Russia's bigger army, though
Moscow's forces have made only creeping progress in their invasion.
Wide-scale desertions and 2 million draft-dodgers are among a raft
of challenges for Ukraine, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said
last month.
Zelenskyy has also pressed Western partners to provide more
sophisticated air defense systems and missiles to help defend
Ukraine.
Military aid sent to Kyiv dropped by 13% last year compared with the
annual average between 2022 and 2024, as U.S. President Donald Trump
stopped sending American weapons, according to Germany’s Kiel
Institute, which tracks such support.
However, European countries have taken up much of the slack,
increasing their military aid by 67% compared with the 2022-2024
period, the institute said in a report Wednesday.
Foreign humanitarian and financial aid to Ukraine fell by 5% last
year in comparison with the previous three years, it said.
Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia launched 129 long-range drones at
Ukraine last night.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an industrial
plant in the city of Volgograd, authorities said.
Volgograd region’s Gov. Andrei Bocharov said that drone fragments
also damaged an apartment building.
Eight Russian airports briefly suspended flights overnight because
of drone attacks, officials said.
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