Russian missile strike on apartment building in Pryluky, northern Ukraine, kills 22 people, including five children

The search and rescue operation has ended at the site of a strike on a five-story apartment building in Pryluky, in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region. A Russian Kh-101 missile partially destroyed the building on the morning of October 7, when many residents were still asleep. The strike killed 22 people, including entire families with children. Five children were killed in all. Another 54 people, including seven children, were injured. “This is the kind of ‘gift’ Putin gave himself for his birthday. Killing children, killing people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the strike. Pryluky declared three days of mourning. Here’s what is known about those killed.

Viktoria Bondarenko’s family

An entire family that lived on the fifth floor, where the Russian missile hit, was killed: 58-year-old Viktoria Bondarenko, her 37-year-old daughter, Kateryna Antypenko, and Kateryna’s 1-year-old son, Sasha. Kateryna’s older daughter, Olya, survived: She was in a room on the other side of the building when the missile struck. Relatives have taken in the girl, whose age was not specified.

Kateryna worked at a tobacco factory to support the family. Viktoria looked after her younger grandson at home. Kateryna’s husband works abroad. After hearing reports of the strike, he set off for home.

Oleksandr Ivanchenko’s family

Those killed in Pryluky included Oleksandr Ivanchenko, a locomotive engineer for Ukrainian Railways; his wife, Yulia, who worked at a local secondary school; and their children, 8-year-old Maksym and 13-year-old Iryna. Ukrainian Railways CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi described them as “a family of railway workers spanning generations.”

Daria Maksiuta’s family

The family lived on the fourth floor of the damaged building. Daria, 23, died alongside her 32-year-old husband, Oleksandr, and their 18-month-old son, Kyrylo.

Police officer Oleh Malysh and his mother-in-law, Liudmyla

Oleh Malysh, 47, had returned from the front shortly before the strike. He had fought in the Chernihiv regional police rifle battalion but returned to Pryluky for health reasons. He and his wife, Yulia, also a police officer, lived in the building hit by the missile. On October 6, Yulia’s mother, Liudmyla, and Yulia’s sister, Kateryna, came to visit, along with Kateryna’s 3-year-old daughter, Zlatoslava. Oleh and his mother-in-law were killed. The other family members are in the hospital.

Liudmyla was likely Ukrnafta employee Liudmyla Tsyba, whose death the company reported. She worked as a painter on a corrosion protection crew and had come to visit relatives the day before the strike.

A Ukrnafta employee

Another Ukrnafta employee, Ihor Chub, was killed in the strike on the apartment building in Pryluky. He worked as an assistant driller in Ukrnafta’s well servicing and workover unit. He was 45.