KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian drone smashed into a home in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region overnight, killing a father and his three small children and seriously wounding their mother who is 35 weeks pregnant, officials said Wednesday.
The strike completely destroyed the brick house and set it on fire, with the family trapped under the rubble, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
The 34-year-old father and his three children — twin boys aged 2 and their 1-year-old sister — were killed, while rescue workers pulled the mother alive from the rubble, prosecutors said. She sustained blast injuries, a traumatic brain injury, burns and hearing loss, they said.
During the almost four years since Russia invaded its neighbor, and despite a new push over the past year in U.S.-led peace efforts, Ukrainian civilians have endured constant aerial attacks.
Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022 as Russia intensified its aerial barrages behind the front line, according to the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country.
The war killed 2,514 civilians and injured 12,142 in Ukraine in 2025 — 31% higher than in 2024, it said.
The drone that struck the Kharkiv town of Bohodukhiv was identified as a Geran-2, a Russian-made version of an Iranian Shahed drone.
“We lost what is most precious — our future,” Bohodukhiv mayor Volodymyr Bielyi wrote on his Facebook page. “There are no words to console the family; there is no prayer that could heal the heart of a mother who has lost her children.”
Bielyi said the mother is fighting for her life in hospital and announced three days of mourning, when national flags will be lowered and all entertainment and organized public events will be cancelled.
“We will endure. We will remember. We will never forgive this horror on our land,” Bielyi wrote.
Bohodukhiv had a pre-war population of 15,000. It is located some 22 kilometers (13 miles) from the Russian border. It wasn't immediately clear whether there was any Ukrainian military infrastructure near the house.
“Each such Russian strike undermines trust in everything being done through diplomacy to end this war, and again and again proves that only strong pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine are the real key to stopping the killings,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of committing countless war crimes since the start of the war, and European institutions have made efforts to hold Russia accountable.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has multiple outstanding arrest warrants for Russian officials for war crimes. They include President Vladimir Putin, who is accused of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Tuesday that Ukraine is making “many changes" in the way it fights Russia's aerial attacks, especially with short-range air defenses. Training and replenishing new troops are also key issues, he said.
Ukraine has been short-handed against Russia's bigger army, though Moscow's forces have made only creeping progress in their invasion.
Wide-scale desertions and 2 million draft-dodgers are among a raft of challenges for Ukraine, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said last month.
Zelenskyy has also pressed Western partners to provide more sophisticated air defense systems and missiles to help defend Ukraine.
Military aid sent to Kyiv dropped by 13% last year compared with the annual average between 2022 and 2024, as U.S. President Donald Trump stopped sending American weapons, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks such support.
However, European countries have taken up much of the slack, increasing their military aid by 67% compared with the 2022-2024 period, the institute said in a report Wednesday.
Foreign humanitarian and financial aid to Ukraine fell by 5% last year in comparison with the previous three years, it said.
Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia launched 129 long-range drones at Ukraine last night.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an industrial plant in the city of Volgograd, authorities said.
Volgograd region’s Gov. Andrei Bocharov said that drone fragments also damaged an apartment building.
Eight Russian airports briefly suspended flights overnight because of drone attacks, officials said.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire at a private house following a Russian air attack in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire at a private house following a Russian air attack in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — South Africa held off Afghanistan in a dramatic double tiebreaker Wednesday at the Twenty20 World Cup, with spinner Keshav Maharaj just holding his nerve in the second Super Over.
It was one of the tightest, most seesawing matches in elite cricket's shortest international format.
Fazalhaq Farooqi’s runout ended Afghanistan’s chance to win it in regulation with two balls to spare, with his team finishing all out for 187 after 19.4 overs chasing South Africa's 187 for six.
That meant it had to go to a tiebreaker — the so-called Super Over. Twice.
Afghanistan posted 17 in the first Super Over and Farooqi was in position to win it again, this time with his bowling. He restricted South Africa to 11 runs with one ball remaining until Tristan Stubbs plundered a six to level the scores again.
South Africa batted first in the second tiebreaker, posting 23 with David Miller and Stubbs combining for three sixes off Azmatullah Omarzai.
Maharaj seemingly gave the 2024 T20 World Cup finalists control with a wicket and two dot balls to start the second Super Over, leaving Afghanistan needing 24 runs from four balls. That would usually require clearing the boundary rope four times.
Enter Rahmanullah Gurbaz. With nothing to lose, the big-hitting opener — who earlier blazed 84 from 42 deliveries as Afghanistan chased down South Africa's target — plundered three consecutive sixes to get the equation down to six runs off one delivery.
A wide from Maharaj lowered the target to 5 from one delivery, and raised the prospect of yet another tiebreaker. But the South African finished it off when he had Gurbaz caught out. It was game over.
Lungi Ngidi, who took 3-26 during the match and then bowled the first of the Super Overs for South Africa, was voted player of the match.
“I’ve lost so much weight today. I’ve never been that stressed in my life in a cricket game,” he said. “Being able to win two Super Overs with our hitters hitting like that … very happy.”
South Africa is 2-0 after winning its opening game over Canada. Afghanistan is now 0-2 after an opening loss to New Zealand and unlikely to progress to the Super Eights from a group containing three highly-ranked teams. Only the top two teams in each of the four groups will advance.
Quinton de Kock (59) and Ryan Rickelton (61) combined in a 114-run second-wicket partnership to set South Africa on course for 187-6 after being sent in by Afghanistan.
The South Africans were 98-1 at the halfway point of the innings, with 23 runs coming off the 10th over from Noor Ahmad.
But Rashid Khan’s double-wicket strike in the 13th over, removing both established batters, stemmed the flow of runs.
The South Africans added 60 in the last seven overs, and Azmatullah Omarzai returned 3-41 for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan lost wickets in clumps, racing to 51 in 4.1 overs before losing three wickets within seven deliveries.
Ngidi took a pair of wickets within three deliveries with clever slower balls and Kagiso Rabada chimed in with a wicket in the sixth over as Afghanistan slipped to 52-3.
Gurbaz then combined in a 69-run fourth-wicket stand with Darwish Rasooli (15) until both batters were dismissed in the 13th over with the total at 121.
Gurbaz was brilliantly caught by George Linde, diving at short third man off Maharaj’s bowling. Rasooli was run out two balls later.
Azmatullah (22), Rashid (20) and Noor Ahmad (15 not out) somehow combined in the lower order to get Afghanistan into a winning position, needing just two off three deliveries.
In a tense final over of regulation, Rabada bowled two no-balls and a wide but was saved when No. 11 Farooqi was run out attempting a second run.
In the second game Wednesday, an injury-depleted Australia won the toss and elected to bat in its tournament opener against Ireland. Travis Head was standing in as captain after Mitch Marsh was ruled out of the game. Marsh was hit in the groin in practice earlier in the week and Cricket Australia issued a statement just before the game saying scans showed internal testicular bleeding.
In the last game of the day, England is due to take on West Indies in Group C.
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Afghanistan's Rahmanullah Gurbaz plays a shot during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Afghanistan and South Africa in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
South Africa's Quinton de Kock plays a shot during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Afghanistan and South Africa in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
South Africa's Ryan Rickel, left with Quinton de Kock greet each other after scoring fifty runs during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Afghanistan and South Africa in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Afghanistan's Noor Ahmad plays a shot during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Afghanistan and South Africa in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
South Africa's Kagiso Rabada looks on with a ball as he run out Afghanistan's Fazalhaq Farooqi during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Afghanistan and South Africa in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Afghanistan's captain Rashid Khan reacts after failing to catch a shot from New Zealand's Tim Seifert during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Afghanistan and New Zealand in Chennai, India, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
South Africa's captain Aiden Markram practice prior to start the match during the T20 World Cup cricket match between Afghanistan and South Africa in Ahmedabad, India, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
