Details emerge of Kyiv family devastated by Russian overnight strike, with father and daughter dead
On the night of 22-23 March, Russian forces launched a large-scale drone attack on Kyiv, leaving dozens injured and three dead across the capital.
Source: Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia
Details: Among the dead are five-year-old Nikol and her father, Oleksandr Haranskyi, who lived in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district. The only member of the family to survive was Oleksandr's wife, Oleksandra, who was injured and is currently in hospital.
Diana Dudchenko, who knew the family, told Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia that the couple had moved to Kyiv from Orikhiv, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, after the full-scale war began. The Haranskyi family attended a church in the capital, which is where they met Diana.
Diana added that the little house in the church grounds where the family lived was totally destroyed in the drone attack.
"Oleksandra sings with me in the church group, so we were in close contact. Their child went to the same kindergarten as my son, so we often used to give them lifts," Dudchenko said.
According to Diana, Oleksandra worked at the church kindergarten before starting her own business baking sweet treats to order. Her husband took on various part-time jobs.
Oleksandra was also actively involved in her church, organising meetings for teenagers several times a week.
Dudchenko describes the Haranskyi family as friendly and kind-hearted people who had continued to help others despite having lost everything in their hometown of Orikhiv.
"They helped out a lot, they were kind and positive. In the winter, Oleksandra organised a project to collect gifts for children and deliver them to frontline regions," she added.
Diana also shared a video of five-year-old Nikol doing one of her favourite things – playing with modelling clay – on 19 March. She said she had seen the little girl at kindergarten the following day, as the children had arranged a special celebration for their mothers.
Diana shared her memories: "Nikol was a very good little girl, she was smart and clever. She was friends with my children, she loved to wear dresses and even had a dress with lights on like a princess. She also loved drawing and making things with modelling clay.
She was a happy little girl. She was in the older children’s group in the kindergarten and would have started in first grade in September."
At the time of the Russian attack on Kyiv, the Haranskyi family were living in a house in the church grounds. Diana said Nikol and Oleksandr were killed instantly when the strike hit their home.
"Oleksandra was thrown twenty metres away from the house and lay there for three hours until a local electrician found her," the family friend added.
Oleksandra is now in intensive care in a Kyiv hospital. Diana is fundraising to help pay for her medical treatment.
У коментарі для "УП. Життя" киянка Діана Дудченко розповіла про родину Гаранських, які постраждали внаслідок атаки РФ по Києву. П'ятирічна Ніколь та її тато Олександр загинули на місці.
— УП.Життя (@UPZhyttya) March 23, 2025
“Ніколь була дуже хорошою дівчинкою, кмітливою, розумною. [...] Дуже любила носити сукні" pic.twitter.com/gpe54upBOX
"The mum [Oleksandra] has regained consciousness, and her prognosis is good," Diana added.
The Russian attack on the Dniprovskyi district also killed an 80-year-old woman whose flat was gutted by fire, the Kyiv24 media outlet reported.
A neighbour said that she herself had not been at home at the time of the fire, but noted that the 80-year-old woman could not be reached by emergency workers in time because there were so many parked cars around the building.
Andrii Isaienko, a well-known Ukrainian theatre and film actor, and his wife, director and producer Olesia Morhunets-Isaienko, live in the same building. Isaienko said they were not injured in the attack and urged people to contribute to a collection to help their neighbours in need.
Earlier, Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia reported on the victims of a Russian attack on Poltava in early February.
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