A Russian drone strike on the central park of Nova Vodolaha, a settlement in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, killed at least five people on 19 October, according to Ukrainian officials. Children were among the dead. Officials revised the casualty figures several times over the course of the evening.
The Kharkiv regional prosecutor's office said Russian forces struck the park at about 16:30 local time. It said preliminary data indicated the weapon was a Geran-3 type drone. That identification rests on the prosecutors' preliminary assessment.
Early official accounts said two women and a child had been killed. Those early accounts put the number of injured at 14, including seven children, and said a cafe building was damaged. The regional branch of the emergency service said the park was crowded when the drone hit, including families with children. It said one of the dead was an infant in a baby stroller.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov initially said a small child and two adults had died at the scene. He later said the number of injured had risen to 15, including seven children. Ambulance teams were taking the wounded to hospitals in Kharkiv, he said. In a subsequent post, Syniehubov put the death toll at six, including three children.
Later that evening, Mediazona reported a revised figure from Ukraine's Interior Ministry and the regional prosecutor's office. According to that report, five people were killed: three women aged 28, 34 and 36, and two girls aged one and 11. Mediazona said 15 people were injured. The outlet updated its report and changed its headline to reflect the revised numbers.
Interior Minister Ivan Mohylevskyi said many people were in the park at the time of the attack, according to Mediazona. The regional emergency service said all emergency crews were at the site. It said they were giving first aid and checking the area for explosive objects.
Under the guidance of the Kharkiv regional prosecutor's office, investigators opened a pre-trial investigation into a war crime resulting in death. The case falls under Article 438 of Ukraine's Criminal Code.
Two days later, in a separate attack, Russian drones struck the Kharkiv region again overnight into 21 October. Ukraine's State Emergency Service said private houses and outbuildings were destroyed and damaged in the residential area of Korotych. It said two people were killed and 11 injured, including two children. Rescuers recovered the bodies of a man and a woman from the rubble of a house. Meduza, citing Syniehubov, said the dead were an 81-year-old woman and an 83-year-old man.
On the same morning, one person was killed in Kyiv, according to Meduza, citing the city administration. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a drone hit a 24-storey residential building in the Sviatoshynskyi district at the level of the 20th floor, starting a fire. Meduza reported that a drone also hit a transport infrastructure facility in the city's Solomianskyi district. Meduza also reported that in the Poltava region, a drone struck a university building in Kremenchuk, where three people were injured, including a 16-year-old, according to preliminary data.
The casualty figures in this article come from Ukrainian officials. Mediazona and Meduza also relayed those accounts. The snapshots do not resolve the difference between Syniehubov's six deaths and the later relayed figure of five in Nova Vodolaha.