Family-of-five ‘burned alive’ after Russian drone strike sparks ‘river of fire’

Russian drones struck a petrol station triggering a ‘river of fire’ in Kharkiv, Ukraine, killing a family of five.

Two adults and three children aged seven, four, and six months were burned alive after 15 houses were set ablaze following the strike.

Three others were also killed following the strike which involved Iranian-designed drones deployed by Russia.

‘They were held hostage by the fire inside their own house,’ said chief investigator Serhiy Bolvinov.

‘The man’s body is in the corridor of the house, the mother and the children tried to save themselves in the bathroom.

‘We do not yet know where the baby’s body is. The search is underway.’

Relatives have been asked for DNA to help identify the victims.

More than 50 people were rescued from the flames of the savage Russian attack in Nemyshlyanskyi district.

A firefighter works at a site of a Russian drone strike (Picture: Reuters)

Some 15 houses were set ablaze (Picture: Reuters)

Witness Andrii Kruglo said: ‘Everything exploded and started running like a river.

‘A burning river. I was covered in diesel fuel. It was running down the street and setting houses on fire.

‘We tried to put the fire out, extinguished it with our hands, with snow, as much as we could.’

Mayor Igor Terekhov said: ‘The enemy’s Shaheds [Iranian-made drones] hit a petrol station, causing burning fuel to spill out and 14 private houses to burn.’

Regional prosecutor Oleksandr Filachkov said three drones caused the mayhem.

A witness said: ‘Everything exploded and started running like a river’ (Picture: AP)

Seven people were killed (Picture: Reuters)

‘As a result, an object of critical infrastructure was destroyed. There was a large amount of fuel, which is why the consequences of the fire were so terrible,’ he said.

The Kharkiv strike followed an earlier attack on Zmiiv when a hotel complex and surrounding buildings was destroyed.

Locals have voiced alarm that Ukraine is running low on air defences and is failing to hold back on Russian attacks especially in the eastern Kharkiv region.

A local source here said: ‘We were under attack with Russian drones [from Iran] and local social media chats were exploding with messages that our area no longer has proper air defences.

‘Kharkiv and the region are desperate for at least one Patriot system. Apparently many drones were shot down from just basic machine guns.

‘We are protected by virtually nothing.’

Firefighters rescue a dog as they extinguish a fire (Picture: AP)

A family of five were killed in the blaze(Picture: Reuters)

Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said her country is facing a ‘critical shortage’ in military hardware.

She called on American lawmakers to overcome their deadlock and deliver urgently-needed military aid to Ukraine.

‘We still have enough people who want to fight — there is no choice, actually for us, we are defending our homes — but we’re running out of equipment, especially missiles and interceptors,’ she told Bloomberg Television’s Balance of Power programme.

She pleaded: ‘We need this support yesterday.’

Spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Colonel Yuriy Ignat warned: ‘There are a lot of statements from different countries, different representatives, and sometimes one gets the impression that we have everything and a lot of it – but no, we do not have everything and we do not have a lot.’

He said: ‘Germany has announced additional IRIS-T, we also expect Patriot.

‘We would like more systems that have proven themselves on the battlefield as a means of fighting ballistics.’

Josep Borell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said: ‘Mobilising additional EU military equipment for Ukraine is my top priority.

‘We must do more and we must do it faster.’

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