A Russian drone attack on a gas station in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday killed seven people, including three children, local authorities said.
“A whole family of 5 people died in a fire at their home, a husband and wife and their three children,” Kharkiv region Governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He said the woman and children had sought shelter in their bathroom, while the man’s body was found in a walkway inside the house. One child was missing, Synegubov said.
“In another house, a 66-year-old man and his 65-year-old wife were killed,” he added.
The gas station attack, which was carried out with Iranian-made Shahed drones, doused nearby homes with burning fuel, forcing at least 50 people to evacuate, Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov had said earlier.
Kharkiv regional prosecutor Oleksandr Filachkov said three drones hit Kharkiv’s Nemyshlyanskyi district.
“As a result, a critical infrastructure building was destroyed. There was a large amount of fuel, which is why the impacts of the fire were so terrible,” he said, referring to the gas station.
Saturday’s strike followed a string of overnight attacks in Kharkiv and a village east of the city.
Ukrainian authorities said Russia had launched 31 attack drones overnight against the eastern Kharkiv and southern Odesa regions, adding that 23 of the aircraft had been shot down.