A woman who survived the Chernobyl nuclear disaster nearly four decades ago has become the latest victim of Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine, after a drone strike destroyed her Kyiv apartment.
A life marked by tragedy
Natalia Khodemchuk, whose husband Valery was the first person killed in the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, died on Friday after sustaining severe burns covering 45% of her body during an overnight Russian attack.
The strike targeted the residential block where she lived alongside other Chernobyl survivors, highlighting what many are calling a cruel twist of fate that connected the two catastrophic events in her life.
Her death brings the total fatalities from Thursday night's massive assault to seven, with at least 35 other people injured across Ukraine.
The Chernobyl connection
Natalia's personal story is inextricably linked to one of history's worst nuclear disasters. Her husband, Valery Khodemchuk, worked as a night shift circulating pump operator at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
When two powerful explosions tore through the facility in 1986, the 35-year-old engineer became the first official casualty. His remains were never recovered, with investigators believing he was vapourised in the initial blast.
Almost forty years later, his widow would meet a similarly terrible end when Russian forces launched approximately 430 drones and 18 missiles across Ukraine in one of the largest aerial assaults in recent weeks.
Widespread destruction and international outrage
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attacks as a "heinous attempt to terrorise the Ukrainian populace." The assault primarily targeted Kyiv but also hit Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast.
Social media users expressed horror at the news of Natalia's death, with one X user writing: "Utterly monstrous. Her husband perished in the service of the Soviet Union, now Moscow has come back to inflict a similarly terrible death on her."
Another commented: "She survived one of the worst disasters in history only to be killed decades later by a drone strike in her own home."
This latest attack follows another Russian offensive less than a week ago that killed six people and damaged residential buildings and energy infrastructure, indicating an escalating pattern of assaults on civilian areas.
The ongoing conflict continues to claim lives across Ukraine, with regional officials reporting additional casualties in Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions in recent days.
