A Ukrainian rescue worker who rushed to the scene of a Russian drone strike overnight found his wife, daughter and baby grandson all dead in the rubble of their home.
The three relatives — including mom Daryna Shyhyda, a police officer, and her 1-year-old baby — were among five killed in the drone strike in the northern city of Pryluky, which also injured six others, Ukrainian officials said.
“One of the rescuers arrived to respond to the aftermath right at his own home,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post.
The murdered baby “is already the 632nd child lost since the full-scale war began,” the president said. “Russia constantly tries to buy time to continue its killings,” he said of counterpart Vladimir Putin allowing deadly strikes even during efforts to reach a peace deal.
A heartbreaking photo shows Shyhyda smiling and holding the infant close to her chest sometime before the attack.
“Today our hearts are scorched by pain,” Ukraine’s National Police force said, according to the Telegraph. “This is not just a loss — it is three generations of life uprooted.”
Six drones hit a residential area in Pryluky, which had a prewar population of around 50,000 people and lies about 60 miles east of Kyiv, shortly before dawn, according to authorities.
More than 100 drones and one ballistic missile blasted Ukrainian targets overnight in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Kherson regions, Zelensky said.
“This is yet another reason to impose maximum sanctions and apply pressure together. We expect action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who can really help change these terrible circumstances,” Zelensky posted on X.
The barrage came hours after President Trump spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Trump admitted was “not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace” between the warring countries.
Zelensky, who has accepted a US ceasefire proposal to stop the bloodshed, wants more international sanctions on Russia to force it to accept a deal.
Last weekend Ukraine launched a secret, crippling attack across the border in Russia over the weekend by sneaking a truck full of drones across the border and unleashing the aircraft to target 40 Russian strategic bombers.
The attack decimated roughly 36% of Russia’s nuclear-capable fleet — in attacks that reached into Siberia and the Arctic.
On Tuesday, Kyiv then bombed the Kerch bridge connecting Crimea with the Russian mainland, in another blow to Putin’s military prestige.
With Post Wires
