A Russian ballistic missile strike targeted the village of Natalyne in the Kharkiv region on Saturday morning, Aug. 29, during a memorial run, killing three people and injuring two others, local police and prosecutors reported.
The attack occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time using what preliminary data suggests was an Iskander-M missile. The strike hit participants of the annual “Honor the Warriors, Run for the Heroes of Ukraine” event, which was organized by the Natalyne Village Military Administration.
The local village council confirmed that community police officer Oleksii Zahvazdin was among the three individuals killed in the attack.
Following the deadly strike, the local prosecutor’s office launched a pre-trial investigation into official negligence.
Investigators stated they will assess the actions of the military administration officials who organized the event, specifically evaluating whether they adequately considered the current security situation and implemented the necessary measures to ensure the safety of participants.
Widespread weekend strikes target civilians and infrastructure
The attack in the Kharkiv region occurred amid a broader wave of Russian drone and aerial assaults across Ukraine over the weekend.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, strikes involving first-person view (FPV) drones and guided aerial bombs killed a 73-year-old woman and wounded five others across multiple settlements. In the Odesa region, a Russian strike targeted civilian food storage warehouses, injuring three people and sparking a massive fire that was later extinguished by rescue workers.
Additionally, Russian drone operators targeted civilians in the Dniprovskyi district of Kherson, dropping explosives that injured two men on Sunday morning.
These regional attacks coincided with a Saturday evening drone barrage on the capital, Kyiv, which marked the third consecutive day of intense aerial assaults on the city.
The weekend Kyiv strikes ignited fires across four districts, including a blaze in a 12-story residential building in Obolon that left three people injured.