A Ukrainian mother who was pregnant with twins has died after her village was struck by an overnight Russian drone attack.
Her two small sons, aged four and six, and her husband were also killed, Ukrainian authorities said.
The family were said to have been wiped out when the strike hit a two-storey residential building in the village of Chernechchyna, in the northeastern Sumy region.
‘This is not the chaos of war but a deliberate choice: Russia strikes at homes, at children, at the very existence of our nation,’ Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on social media.
A reporter on the ground told of seeing the charred ruins of a building destroyed in the attack.
At least 65 drones targeted the country overnight, the latest in daily barrages launched by Moscow, with most of the projectiles shot down by air defences, according to Ukrainian officials.
A separate attack on the city of Dnipro on Tuesday killed one person and wounded 15, regional governor Sergiy Lysak said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the strike as ‘a brazen attack in broad daylight, targeting civilian infrastructure’.
‘Such strikes also demonstrate that the world’s sanctions on Russia must hit the aggressor much harder,’ he said on X.
A Ukrainian mother who was pregnant with twins has died after her village was struck by an overnight Russian drone attack. Her two small sons, aged four and six, and her husband were also killed. Pictured: Remains of building struck by Russian drone attack on September 30, 2025 in Chernechchyna
At least 65 drones targeted Ukraine overnight, the latest in daily barrages launched by Moscow. Pictured: Remains of the building targeted by Russian strikes on Chernechchyna, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine on Tuesday
As a result of the strike, a family with two children was killed, and 12 houses were destroyed
Overnight on Tuesday, Russian drones also hit energy infrastructure in the northern Chernigiv region, cutting electricity to over 26,000 homes, the head of the military administration said.
Kyiv has increasingly responded to Moscow’s aerial attacks, by carrying out assaults on Russian logistics and refineries.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had ‘intercepted and destroyed’ 81 Ukrainian drones overnight with no reported damage.
The deadly strikes came as Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s largest autumn military conscription since 2016 as he continues his assault on Ukraine.
The Kremlin despot wants 135,000 men between 18 and 30 years old to join the country’s military service in a significantly bulked-up version of its seasonal recruitment drive.
Russia calls up young males for compulsory service each spring and autumn, which typically sees them serve for a year at a military base within the country.
Though there have been reports of conscripts being instantly put on the frontline, there is no guarantee that the latest recruits will be sent straight to war.
However, it is believed the Kremlin is feeling increased pressure to maintain an offensive after the death and injury toll for Russian soldiers well surpassed one million.
In a decree issued on Monday, Putin ordered ‘the conscription of 135,000 citizens of the Russian Federation from October 1 to December 31, 2025’.
The deadly strikes came as Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s largest autumn military conscription since 2016 as he continues his assault on Ukraine. Pictured: Russian solders are pictured marching in Red Square, central Moscow, on May 9 2025
Young Russian males are pictured receiving combat training after being conscripted last year
Combined with the 160,000 Russians called up in the spring, it means 2025 is set to see the largest total number of call-ups to its military in nearly a decade.
Since launching his assault on Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has put Russia on a war footing and boosted military spending to levels unseen since the Soviet era.
In an address on the Kremlin’s website last night, Putin said his forces are prevailing in what he labelled as a ‘righteous battle’ against Ukraine.
He said: ‘Our fighters and commanders go on the attack, and the entire country, all of Russia, is waging this righteous battle and working hard.
‘Together we are defending our love for the Motherland and the unity of our historical destiny, we are fighting and we are prevailing.’
The Russian Defence Ministry also said it had taken control of two settlements of eastern Donetsk last night, Shandryholove and Zarichne.
