Family and colleagues mourn beloved Kyiv teacher killed in a Russian strike

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Natalia Haiova was a beloved kindergarten teacher in Kyiv known for the artistic flair of her creations -- drawings, flower arrangements, decorations.

Last week, she perished in a Russian strike on a nine-story building in the Svyatoshinsky district of the capital. The attack, which targeted multiple neighborhoods in Kyiv, claimed the lives of 31 people, including five children, making it the deadliest to hit the capital since the full-scale invasion.

Haiova, 46, was killed along with her sons, Vladyslav, 21, and Roman, 17, and her brother Oleksandr Naralyk, 44. The family was crushed under rubble when their apartment building collapsed over their heads.

On Tuesday, Haiova’s friends and family came to pay their last respects before she and her sons and brother were laid to rest in a Kyiv cemetery.

Nadia Kolisnyk, 56, the headmaster of the school where she worked, said that everyone would remember Haiova as a helpful and knowledgeable professional, as well as a creative spirit.

“You saw the beauty she created. All the flowers, the decorations — it was all her golden hands,” Kolisnyk said.

Arthur Kulishenko, 22, a classmate of Vladyslav’s, had gone to the scene of the attack and waited for his friend’s remains to be found, he said.

“We knew he was under the rubble and just waited,” he said. “There were just rocks. The building just crumbled there. It collapsed like a sliced cake.”

Haiova had moved during the pandemic to the house which had belonged to her father. She found a job right away in the nearby kindergarten, said her sister Olena Stetsiuk, 46.

When mass drone and missile attacks escalated on the capital in June, Stetsiuk, who lives in a different part of Kyiv, would message her sister and ask her how she was. Haiova would often respond that she was too tired to head to the basement to take shelter. But recent attacks had been so loud and scary she had usually made the decision to go.

Stetsiuk remembers the last shopping trip she made with her sister. They needed to find black garments for a friend’s funeral.

“We chose, walked around, laughed,” she said. “And we chose this blouse with her. She said, take this one. And we went to my place. We sat, discussed it, and looked some more.”

Stetsiuk wore the same blouse to her sister’s funeral two weeks later.

CAPTION CORRECTS THE SPELLING - Mourners at the funeral of Natalia Haiova, her sons Vladyslav and Roman, and her brother Oleksandr, who were killed in their apartment in Kyiv during the Russian strike on July 31, in Ivankovychi, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

CAPTION CORRECTS THE SPELLING - Cemetery workers are seen lowering a casket into the grave during a funeral of Natalia Haiova, her sons Vladyslav and Roman, and her brother Oleksandr, who were killed in their apartment in Kyiv during the Russian strike on July 31, in Ivankovychi, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

CAPTION CORRECTS THE SPELLING - Mourners at the funeral of Natalia Haiova, her sons Vladyslav and Roman, and her brother Oleksandr, who were killed in their apartment in Kyiv during the Russian strike on July 31, in Ivankovychi, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

CAPTION CORRECTS THE SPELLING - Mourners at the funeral of Natalia Haiova, her sons Vladyslav and Roman, and her brother Oleksandr, who were killed in their apartment in Kyiv during the Russian strike on July 31, in Ivankovychi, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

CAPTION CORRECTS THE SPELLING - Dmytro Haiova at the funeral of his sons Vladyslav and Roman, his wife Natalia and her brother Oleksandr, who were killed in their apartment in Kyiv during the Russian strike on July 31, in Ivankovychi, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Vote counting was underway Friday in Uganda’s tense presidential election, which was held a day earlier amid an internet shutdown, voting delays and complaints by an opposition leader who said some of his polling agents had been detained by the authorities.

Opposition leader Bobi Wine said Thursday he was unable to leave his house and that his polling agents in rural areas were abducted before voting started, undermining his efforts to prevent electoral offenses such as ballot stuffing.

Wine is hoping to end President Yoweri Museveni's four-decade rule in an election during which the military was deployed and heavy security was posted outside his house near Kampala, the Ugandan capital, after the vote.

The musician-turned-politician wrote on X on Thursday that a senior party official in charge of the western region had been arrested, adding there was “massive ballot stuffing everywhere.”

Rural Uganda, especially the western part of the country, is a ruling-party stronghold, and the opposition would be disadvantaged by not having polling agents present during vote counting.

To try to improve his chances of winning, Wine had urged his supporters to “protect the vote” by having witnesses document alleged offenses at polling stations, in addition to deploying official polling agents.

Wine faced similar setbacks when he first ran for president five years ago. Museveni took 58% of the vote, while Wine got 35%, according to official results. Wine said at the time that the election had been rigged in favor of Museveni, who has spoken disparagingly of his rival.

Museveni, after voting on Thursday, said the opposition had infiltrated the 2021 election and defended the use of biometric machines as a way of securing the vote in this election.

Museveni has served the third-longest tenure of any African leader and is seeking to extend his rule into a fifth decade. The aging president’s authority has become increasingly dependent on the military, which is led by his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.

Voters line up to cast their ballots at a polling station, during the presidential election, in the capital, Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Election officials count ballots after the polls closed for the presidential election at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

An election official holds up unmarked ballots during the vote count after polls closed for the presidential election, at a polling center in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A political representative speaks as he works to observe and verify the counting of ballots after polls closed in the presidential election at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A supporter of leading opposition candidate Bobi Wine cheers while watching election officials count ballots, after polls closed at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)