By Blessing Nweke
A Russian drone strike killed at least four people, including three very young children, in the town of Bohodukhiv west of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, as Moscow renewed attacks following a brief pause.
Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, said two one-year-old boys, a two-year-old girl and a 34-year-old man were killed when a drone hit the house where they were staying Tuesday night. A 35-year-old pregnant woman and a 76-year-old woman were injured in the strike.
The attack came after what Ukrainian officials described as a week-long lull requested by U.S. President Donald Trump, who had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe a pause as severe cold, with temperatures plunging to minus 20 degrees Celsius, gripped Ukraine. The so-called “energy truce,” intended to spare critical infrastructure during the freezing weather, expired last week.
Russian forces also dropped seven bombs on the eastern city of Slovyansk around midday Tuesday, Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram. Two people, including an 11-year-old girl, were killed.
Bohodukhiv had already been struck earlier in the week. Overnight drone attacks on Monday cut power to tens of thousands nationwide and killed at least four people, including a mother and her 10-year-old son in Bohodukhiv, according to Ukrainian officials cited by Reuters.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has faced mounting pressure, with a power plant damaged earlier this month. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has intensified strikes on transport and energy infrastructure using a record number of ballistic missiles. Local authorities have declared a state of emergency over the region’s energy situation.
Meanwhile, Russian officials reported a large Ukrainian drone attack on Volzhsky in the Volgograd region, damaging an apartment building and sparking a factory fire, according to Governor Andrei Bocharov.
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