Russian drone strike on park in Nova Vodolaha kills at least six, including children
On 19 October, a Russian drone struck the central park in the village of Nova Vodolaha in Kharkiv Oblast, hitting a gathering of families with children around 16:30. According to Ukrainian officials, at least six people were killed, including three children, and 15 were injured, seven of them children. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy identified one victim as a one-year-old girl named Anhelina, whose mother Inna later died in hospital.
Key points
- Russian drone struck central park in Nova Vodolaha, Kharkiv Oblast, on 19 October around 16:30
- Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office identified the weapon as a Geran-3 drone
- Death toll later reported as six, including three children, by Kharkiv OVA head Oleh Syniehubov
- At least 15 people injured, including seven children, according to Syniehubov and the prosecutor's office
- President Zelenskyy named one-year-old Anhelina and her mother Inna among the dead; an 11-year-old girl was also killed
- Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office opened a war-crimes investigation into the strike
- A day of mourning was declared in Nova Vodolaha
Why it matters
The strike hit a populated civilian park in the afternoon, killing small children and their mother and wounding many others, including seven children. It has prompted a formal war-crimes investigation by the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office, a day of mourning in Nova Vodolaha, and a fresh round of appeals from President Zelenskyy to international partners to keep sanctions on Russia and to supply Ukraine with air-defence systems.
What happened
On 19 October around 16:30, a Russian Geran-3 drone struck the central park in Nova Vodolaha, a village in Kharkiv Oblast. At the time, many people were in the park, including families with children. Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi initially reported two women and an infant killed and at least 14 injured, seven of them children. The Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office later updated the toll to five dead — three women aged 28, 34, and 36, and two girls aged 1 and 11 — while Kharkiv OVA head Oleh Syniehubov reported six dead, including three children, and 15 injured. President Zelenskyy identified the infant as one-year-old Anhelina, born in August 2025, whose mother Inna died in hospital; an 11-year-old girl was also among the dead. Viktor Zabashta, director of the regional emergency medical aid centre, said nine adults and six children sustained shrapnel wounds. Emergency services and Ministry of Internal Affairs units deployed to the scene to provide first aid and to survey the area for explosive ordnance, and a café building was damaged. Local police head Yuriy Yurchenko said the drone circled the park several times before falling and hitting a tree near the café.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
All supplied sources are Ukrainian and uniformly attribute the attack to Russian forces, emphasise that it struck a populated civilian park where families and children were present, and centre victims including named children such as one-year-old Anhelina and her mother Inna. Coverage foregrounds official Ukrainian voices — Interior Minister Vyhivskyi, Kharkiv OVA head Syniehubov, President Zelenskyy, and the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office — and frames the strike as a war crime against civilians with no military purpose. Ukrainian outlets consistently link the attack to appeals for sanctions, air-defence systems, and continued military support, and note a day of mourning declared in Nova Vodolaha.
Where reporting differs
Sources differ on the final death toll: Interior Minister Vyhivskyi's initial report cited three dead (two women and an infant); the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office later updated to five dead (three women aged 28, 34, and 36, and two girls aged 1 and 11); President Zelenskyy and Kharkiv OVA head Oleh Syniehubov cited six dead, including three children. Sources also differ on the number of injured: Vyhivskyi initially reported at least 14 injured, including seven children; later figures from Syniehubov and the prosecutor's office cited 15 injured, while one Zelenskyy statement reported six children among the injured. One source's headline states three killed including an infant while its body text mentions only one woman and one child killed, an internal discrepancy in that single article.
Background
Russian strikes on Kharkiv Oblast have been a recurring pattern of the war; an earlier strike on 12 October destroyed an apartment building entrance in Kharkiv and killed three people. Nova Vodolaha is a settlement in Kharkiv Oblast where civilians were gathering in a central park, including families with children, at the time of the 19 October strike.