Russian Shahed Drone Strikes Private Home in Zhytomyr, Injuring 9, Including 2 Children

A Russian Shahed drone struck a private home in the Zhytomyr community on Thursday, Oct. 22, injuring nine people, including two children.

The region, located in northwestern Ukraine, roughly 87 miles from Kyiv, is far from the current frontline. Vitalii Bunechko, head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration reported the attack, confirming that the two of the injured were taken to the regional hospital.

Rescuers from the State Emergency Service (SES), medical teams and Red Cross representatives were still working at the scene at the time of the report. The casualty toll could rise as more information becomes available.

“Russia continues its deliberate terror against the peaceful Zhytomyr region,” Bunechko said.

Second attack in 2 days

Over the previous day, Russian forces had launched several jet-powered drone strikes on the region, targeting civilian sites – including private households – and critical energy infrastructure.

Eight residential houses were damaged, Bunechko reported in a statement on social media, confirming that no casualties were reported.

Civilian life under constant fire

Although international humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, such strikes have become a daily part of life for residents of Ukraine, reaching regions hundreds of miles from the frontline.

Closer to the front, regional authorities are urging civilians, particularly families with children, to leave as soon as possible.

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On Thursday, the forced evacuation zone for families with children was expanded to the entire Sloviansk community in the Donetsk region, after repeated strikes killed eight civilians and injured two boys aged seven and 12 on Wednesday, Oct. 21.

“This is the right and important decision,” head of the Sloviansk City Military Administration Vadym Lyakh said.

Donetsk Regional Governor Vadym Filashkin has also urged parents to evacuate to safer parts of Ukraine with their children, saying that “no home and no circumstances are worth a child’s life.”

Russian forces have shelled settlements across the Donetsk region 42 times over the past day, prompting regional authorities to evacuate a total of 215 people, including 68 children.

The attack on the community came around the same time Russian forces used an FPV drone to strike an armored evacuation vehicle of the Proliska Humanitarian Mission near Kramatorsk, also located in the Donetsk region.

On Monday, Oct. 19, Russian forces struck a crowded park in Nova Vodolaha, Kharkiv region with a drone, killing six people, including two children. The youngest victim was a little girl just over a year old, who was killed sitting in her stroller. Her mother, Inna, later died in hospital.

Months earlier, on July 30, a Russian missile struck the village of Radushne in the Kryvyi Rih district of Dnipropetrovsk region, killing an entire family of 10 people, including two parents, seven children, and an 18-month-old grandson.