Family with two children killed in Kharkiv Oblast by Russian landmine

An explosion of a Russian mine killed a family of six people, including two children, in Kharkiv Oblast. A 2-month-old girl and a 5-year-old boy are among the dead.

Their car hit a mine on a dirt road in the woods on their way home from a cottage, said Serhii Bolvinov, Head of the National Police Investigation Department in Kharkiv Oblast.

"The man was carrying his sister, her two adult children and two young grandchildren in a Zhiguli (a Soviet car brand – ed.). The driver decided to take a shortcut to the city and turned into the forest near the ring road," Bolvinov wrote.

The tragedy happened near the cemetery in village of Tsyrkuny. The car hit the Russian mine and then caught fire. Preliminary data suggests it was a Russian TM-62P anti-tank mine.

"The explosion was so powerful that people were thrown out of the car in different directions. The body of the older boy was severely burned, and his uncle's body parts had to be collected," the investigator said.

Law enforcement officers found the body of a two-month-old girl the day after the tragedy. The blast wave had her thrown 15 metres away from her mother.

The search lasted from 7 July. The first to check the area were demolition experts.

On 2 July, a 58-year-old resident of the Kherson Oblast hit a Russian mine. An 11-year-old boy and his grandfather were injured in June when their goat stepped on a mine in Kherson Oblast.

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