UKRAINE, PECHENIHY, Aug. 18 — At about 8:40 a.m., Russian forces attacked the Pechenihy settlement in eastern Kharkiv oblast on the right bank of the Siverskyi Donets river with two Banderol missiles. The attack killed 10 and injured over 20 people, said Oleksandr Husarov, the head of Pechenihy military administration, to Gwara Media.
Gwara Media journalists were at the scene to document the consequences of the Russian attack on the settlement.
“People built something their whole lives, and Russia destroyed it in one moment,” Vitalii, a Pechenihy local, said, clearing up the rubble of a cafe in the village center, completely destroyed by the missile.
The attack killed two cafe workers. Susanna, a cafe’s cashier, was inside when Banderol hit, while Yevhen, another employee, was grilling meat nearby.
“Susanna was my close friend. I don’t know how to cope with this,” said Yana, an owner of a destroyed cafe and Vitalii’s sister.
Yana and Susanna had been classmates and friends since childhood. Yana also knew Yevhen her whole life. He was born in Pechenihi, but later moved to Vovchansk, a city north of Kharkiv, that’s now completely destroyed by Russian push into the Kharkiv region in 2024. After he returned to his hometown, he began working at Yana’s cafe.
Yana lives right next to her cafe, so her house was damaged as well. She said the blast wave blew out the windows there, and damaged the roof.
Throughout the day, she keeps walking back and forth between the cafe and her house. She says she was lucky to have been at home at the moment of the Russian attack.
Husarov said that the Russians launched two missiles from the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river. The second strike hit a parking zone at a bus station.
He said that, apart from cafe workers, passersby and cafe guests were also among the killed.
At about 1:00 p.m., the State Emergency Service said that rescue workers had completed emergency rescue operations at the impact site in Pechenihy.
Husarov added that experts will conduct further investigations at the site and perform DNA analysis to identify all the people killed.
Since 2022, 14 civilians have been killed in the Pechenihy community. “Today, a single strike killed a lot of people,” Husarov said.
August 18 and 19 have been declared days of mourning in the Pechenihy community.
Read more
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