On Monday, August 3, 2026, a funeral was held in central Ukraine for five members of the same family who were killed in a Russian airstrike last week. According to Ukrainian authorities, the tragedy occurred on July 30 when an Iskander ballistic missile directly hit the family's house in Kryvyi Rih, the home city of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. While at least two adults and four children were confirmed dead, the death toll may rise as officials have not yet formally identified all remains. An AFP journalist reported that the coffins of five victims were brought to a small church in the town, where they were mourned by a crowd of several dozen people.
Oksana Stretovych, a colleague of the deceased Olena Voronova, remembered the family as exceptionally good, sincere, and always willing to help others. Stretovych recalled hearing a powerful explosion on the night of the incident while she was awake, worrying about her husband and her son, Taras, who serves in the Ukrainian army in difficult areas. After searching for the source of the blast, she learned of the tragedy. Her son, Taras, described them as a wonderful, large family of faith who worked for the good of Ukraine. He stated that Russian forces had simply wiped a great family off the map, adding that the loss had increased his desire for vengeance. The priest officiating the service also described the family as hardworking and respectable. He noted that the force of the strike blew out windows in his own garage and bedroom, and that after the missile hit, the Voronov home was gone, leaving only flattened earth.
More than four years since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, shelling continues on an almost daily basis and is intensifying on both sides of the frontline, causing a growing number of civilian deaths. On Monday, a new Russian attack near Kryvyi Rih killed three people, including an 8-year-old child, at a service station, according to Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration. In July, the U.N. expressed concern about an alarming escalatory trend of increased civilian casualties in Ukraine, driven by the intensifying use of powerful weapons in densely populated urban areas.
Meanwhile, Russian officials reported that Ukrainian strikes killed 11 people in Russia and annexed Crimea on Monday. The local governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, stated on Telegram that seven people, including three children, were killed and dozens wounded when a drone crashed on a Russian beach on the Black Sea coast. Kondratyev described the event as a deliberate attack by the Kyiv regime on the civilian population, claiming it had no connection to military infrastructure. Ukraine has escalated retaliatory strikes on Russian energy and logistics infrastructure in recent months to pressure Moscow to the negotiating table. President Vladimir Putin acknowledged in June that these strikes were causing problems and a certain shortage for Russia, though he claimed it was not critical.
Last week, President Zelenskyy met in Washington with President Trump and representatives of American defense companies to plead for swifter and larger deliveries of Patriot air defense systems, which are considered the best way to stop Russian ballistic assaults. The war in Iran has drained stockpiles of the American-made interceptors. While President Trump has promised to grant Ukraine licenses to build its own Patriots, production could take a long time to establish.
