{"id":100336,"date":"2025-10-26T08:24:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T08:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=100336"},"modified":"2025-10-26T08:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T08:24:47","slug":"the-heroes-of-kharkiv-who-saved-48-children-from-kindergarten-hit-by-russian-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=100336","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Heroes of Kharkiv\u2019 who saved 48 children from kindergarten hit by Russian drone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>4 Minute, 50 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Although moving forward, Oleksandr Volobuev\u2019s body is angled slightly away from the camera, as if bracing against the deadly air still swirling with falling debris and smoke.<\/p>\n

His face in careful concentration, the Major-General from Ukraine\u2019s Civil Protection Service clings tightly to a precious bundle, wrapped for protection in his coat \u2013 and out of which two small pink shoes protrude.<\/p>\n

It is a striking image of a dramatic rescue from a nursery school in the eastern city of Kharkiv, following a devastating, direct hit by a Russian drone.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly it has gone viral, capturing both the Ukrainian and the wider global public\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n

With 48 children trapped in a shelter in the burning building, it was not the only act of bravery that day, not by a long way.<\/p>\n

But few photographs better sum up the growing impact of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion on everyday life, with Ukraine\u2019s most vulnerable now bearing the brunt, including children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the call that there had been an attack on the kindergarten,\u201d Oleksandr Volobuev told me. \u201cAnd, of course, knowing there would be children there, we set off in a state of some anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little did he expect that by the end of that day, as a result of carrying that little girl to safety, he would find himself being hailed as a national hero.<\/p>\n

In a split-second moment caught on camera, the Ukrainian people saw not only the reality of Russia\u2019s new strategy \u2013 its increasing attacks on civilian infrastructure \u2013 but also a stark depiction of their own resilience and defiance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to know why the Honey Academy, based in a sturdy, two-storey brick building in Kharkiv\u2019s Kholodnohirsky district, was hit by a Shahed drone.<\/p>\n

The low, menacing hum of those Iranian-designed weapons, which carry a lethal 50kg payload, is now all too familiar, not only to soldiers on the front line, but to Ukrainians everywhere.<\/p>\n

While they can be devastatingly accurate, the large volume being fired by Russia \u2013 with multiple waves of drones in each attack on cities across the country \u2013 means some inevitably malfunction.<\/p>\n

Russia has regularly denied targeting residential areas, but maps of the city show no obvious military targets in the immediate vicinity of the kindergarten, and the Ukrainian government certainly spoke of it as deliberate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no justification for an attack on a kindergarten, nor can there ever be,\u201d President Volodymyr Zelensky said shortly after the strike. \u201cClearly, Russia is growing more brazen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Fedir Uhnenko was also with one of the emergency teams rushing to respond to the strike.<\/p>\n

Normally, as a press officer with the Civil Defence Service, he is not so closely involved in frontline work.<\/p>\n

But this time, seeing the disaster unfolding in front of him, he knew he had to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019d been a huge explosion and there was horror in their eyes,\u201d he told me, on finding the children huddled in the building\u2019s basement.<\/p>\n

Luckily, following the air raid warning that had sounded before the attack, the children had taken cover in the school\u2019s shelter there.<\/p>\n

But with the fire still burning, the roof destroyed and the building filling with smoke and dust, they were still in danger.<\/p>\n

His colleagues, as well as members of the public who had come to help, stepped forward one by one to scoop up a child.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Like Oleksandr, his more senior commander, Fedir was pictured carrying a child to safety. In his case it was a young boy, through the rubble and smoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was reassuring him all the way that everything was fine, there was nothing to worry about,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we came out of the building, there was a car on fire. Our boys were putting it out. And, you know, I was surprised the kid didn\u2019t cry. There was certainly fear in his eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to him, go ahead and hold me as tight as you like. I\u2019m quite big myself and, as you can see in the photo, he grabbed me so tightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, he had fulfilled two roles: the rescue work and his day job too. His press officer\u2019s helmet-camera rolled throughout, capturing many of the up-close photographs and videos that have since been beamed around the world.<\/p>\n

The children were carried to an emergency reception point in a safe zone, a few hundred metres from the nursery school.<\/p>\n

All were unharmed, but there can be little doubt about the danger they faced.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

One adult working nearby was killed in the strike and nine others were wounded, one with serious burns and another a traumatic amputation of her leg.<\/p>\n

For all the rescuers, Fedir told me, there was the constant awareness not only of the risks of fire, falling masonry and smoke, but of the possibility of another strike.<\/p>\n

Russia has been known to hit the same target twice, which Ukrainians see as a deliberate strategy to kill emergency workers.<\/p>\n

The day after the nursery school attack, one of these so called \u201cdouble taps\u201d killed a firefighter and wounded five of his colleagues in a village a short distance from Kharkiv.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Ukraine believes Russia has turned to civilian targets in desperation over its inability to make significant gains on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

Both Oleksandr and Fedir say what they saw at the kindergarten has done little to change their view of the enemy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning I have only one feeling that we must go through all this and win,\u201d Oleksandr told me.<\/p>\n

I ask him what kind of future he envisages for the 48 young lives he helped save.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, only good, happy lives,\u201d he replied. \u201cBut not only our children. I would like all children to live in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
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