Three-day mourning declared in Bohodukhiv for victims of Russian strikes
In the town of Bohodukhiv in the Kharkiv region, February 11–13 have been declared days of mourning for six residents who were killed over the past two days as a result of Russian strikes.
This was reported on Facebook by Bohodukhiv Mayor Volodymyr Bielyi, according to Ukrinform.
“There are no words to comfort the families. There is no prayer that can heal the heart of a mother who has lost her children. All we can do is stand beside them, share this burden, and preserve the memory of every name. In connection with this tragedy and the deaths of civilians over the past two days, I have signed an order declaring February 11, 12, and 13 days of mourning across the Bohodukhiv district,” the post reads.
During these days, Ukrainian state flags on administrative buildings, enterprises, and institutions will be flown at half-mast with black ribbons, and all entertainment and mass events have been canceled.
According to Viktor Kovalenko, Head of the Zolochiv community in the Bohodukhiv district, those killed overnight were veteran Hryhorii Shykula and his three children.
“Hryhorii was originally from Skovorodynivka in our community. After finishing school, he did not return to his native village, though he remained registered there. In recent years he lived in the settlement of Nova Vodolaha, from where he went to defend the country and where he returned after demobilization. He had been wounded, underwent a leg amputation, and was fitted with a prosthesis,” Kovalenko said.
The wounded wife of the veteran, Olha, is also originally from the border area of the Zolochiv community. She is 35 weeks pregnant. The family had recently moved to Bohodukhiv.
“People say that less than a week had passed since they moved. They bought a house there because Hryhorii’s sisters live nearby,” Kovalenko noted.
According to him, the woman’s condition remains serious but stable.
“She sustained severe injuries… and you understand what her psychological state must be,” Kovalenko said.
As reported by Ukrinform, on the night of February 11 in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv region, rescuers recovered from the rubble of a house struck by a Russian drone the bodies of four victims: a two-year-old girl, two boys aged one year and three months, and their 34-year-old father.
The children’s mother was rescued. The pregnant woman sustained blast injuries, a traumatic brain injury, acoustic barotrauma, and thermal burns.
A neighboring elderly woman was diagnosed with an acute stress reaction and a hypertensive crisis.
According to preliminary information from the regional prosecutor’s office, the Russians struck a private house using a Geran-2 UAV.
Earlier, on the night of February 9, a Russian attack in Bohodukhiv killed a mother and her 10-year-old son, Svitlana and Mykhailo Spitsyn.