Funeral honors Ukrainian student killed as she helped the victims of a Russian strike

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds of mourners dressed mostly in white walked through central Kyiv on Tuesday behind the open casket of a university student killed at the weekend by a Russian strike as she helped people wounded in an earlier attack.

The farewell for 20-year-old Vitalina Yarovenko began inside St. Michael’s golden-domed Cathedral, where clergy read prayers over the casket and relatives and friends approached her body to say goodbye.

Her family said they had asked mourners to wear white or traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts instead of black, so that Vitalina “would not feel too sad.”

Although Yarovenko was a civilian, her mother asked that she be given the kind of funeral procession used in Ukraine to honor fallen soldiers. Several hundred people followed her casket from the cathedral downhill toward Independence Square.

Traffic stopped for several minutes to allow the procession pass. Drivers stepped out of their cars and stood silently. Some knelt on one knee, while others placed a hand over their heart.

Yarovenko, a fourth-year psychology student at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, had been an instructor at a military training school affiliated with the university.

In July, she began volunteering with the Hospitallers, a Ukrainian medical organization which is mostly focused on delivering frontline medical aid and whose teams travel to the sites of Russian attacks to treat and evacuate the wounded.

Early Saturday, Yarovenko rushed to the scene of a Russian missile strike that hit Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district. As she and other volunteers were at the scene, another strike hit the same location, according to her relatives and friends.

Ukrainian officials have previously accused Russia of targeting rescue workers by hitting residential buildings with two consecutive missiles — the first one to draw crews to the scene and the second one to wound or kill them. The tactic is called a “double tap” in military jargon.

At Independence Square, the crowd observed a minute of silence for those killed while defending Ukraine.

Yarovenko’s mother, Nataliia, stood holding a microphone in her right hand and a large portrait of her daughter in her left. Crying, her voice shaking, she said she was giving up the most precious thing she had.

“I have given up the meaning of my entire life, but I am immensely proud,” she said. “I don’t want a hero at home. I want my child at home. But this was her path.”

Beside her stood another mother, also named Nataliia, whose daughter, 25-year-old Eva Royce, was working alongside Yarovenko and was also killed.

Royce had not yet been buried because her remains were severely burned and the identification of recovered body parts was still underway. Her mother did not speak during Yarovenko’s ceremony as she mourned her own daughter.

Yarovenko had planned to enlist after completing her fourth year at university, said her friend Anastasiia Alieksieieva.

“Her decision to volunteer and help people in Kyiv after the attacks showed how committed she was to that plan,” Alieksieieva, 21, said. “She did not even make it to graduation.”

Another close friend, Anna Donets, 19, said Yarovenko had raised money for Ukraine’s military, volunteered at a military hospital and helped organize military training for youth.

“There are not many people like her, and she was going there to help people,” Donets said. “People like her shape the future, and others should follow them. But unfortunately, Russia kills them.”

Donets described Yarovenko as exceptionally funny and someone whose presence could lift those around her.

“We were remembering her humor yesterday and laughing because she was always teasing everyone. It was never boring with her,” she said. “At 8 in the morning on teaching days, when everyone else was exhausted, she would arrive as if she were stepping onto a runway. She was so beautiful — simply a queen.”

Serhii Beskrestnov, a family friend and a presidential adviser on defense technology development, struggled to find words.

“We understand that there is a war, that men and women are dying,” he said. “But when it happens away from the front, to people who are helping ... I don’t know. I have no words right now.”

Russia launched 220 aerial weapons across Ukraine that night, including 35 missiles and 185 drones, Ukraine’s air force said. Twenty-seven missiles were ballistic Iskander-M missiles or missiles fired from S-400 systems. Ukrainian defenses intercepted only one of them, along with one guided air-launched missile.

At least nine people were killed and 33 were wounded in Kyiv that night, according to Ukrainian authorities. The attack underscored Ukraine’s critical shortage of Western-supplied defenses against ballistic missiles. Ukraine relies heavily on U.S.-made Patriot systems, but interceptor missiles remain in short supply.

At the end of the ceremony, mourners approached Yarovenko’s casket one by one, laying white flowers beside her. She was later buried at a military cemetery in Kyiv, a distinction rarely granted to civilians.

Her mother spoke of the future she had imagined for her daughter — and the future she said Ukrainians must still defend.

“We must withstand this war so that this land remains for our Ukrainian children,” she said. “Unfortunately, my child will now lie in this earth. I would have very much liked to give her a beautiful wedding, but today that is no longer possible.”

Relatives mourn near the coffin of Vitalina Yarovenko, 20, during the funeral ceremony in the Independence square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

People kneel during the funeral ceremony for Vitalina Yarovenko, 20, in the Independence square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Vitalina Yarovenko and her friends attend a party in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Vitalina Yarovenko, is seen in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Relatives and friends mourn near the coffin of Vitalina Yarovenko, 20, during the funeral ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Michigan will offer the country its clearest gauge yet on the direction of the Democratic Party, as primary voters in the battleground state choose between a progressive standard-bearer and an establishment-backed candidate.

Although there have been similar contests around the country, this one will hold extra weight because Michigan is a key state in presidential races. Abdul El-Sayed, backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, is up against four-term Rep. Haley Stevens, supported by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Democratic and Republican voters in Michigan are also deciding on their parties’ nominees to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

In Kansas, Missouri, Virginia and Washington state, voters are settling primaries in a host of races, including a key rematch between Democrats in a Missouri House contest. Also in play is whether Democrats, who tried to redraw districts in Virginia to their advantage but were rebuffed by the state supreme court, can pick candidates who can defeat Republicans in the fall.

Here is a look at the Latest:

Voters will decide whether to clear the way for a new congressional map that would favor Democrats in all eight of the state’s U.S. House districts. Democrats currently hold seven of the House seats.

If voters approve the constitutional amendment, a redrawn map could kick in for 2028.

Maryland is moving more slowly than the 10 states that have passed new district boundaries for this year’s elections. States usually make new maps only after new census counts are released early each decade.

Craig and Regina Kuper were in Detroit’s Eastern Market, where, to their delight, the progressive candidate dropped by Tuesday.

“We just feel that, first of all, healthcare for all is really important,” said Regina Kuper, 78.

“There’s not a lot of humanity in politics,” Craig Kuper, 81, added in, seeming to suggest El-Sayed was an antidote.

While progressive politics, such as El-Sayed’s, are often associated with younger voters, Regina Kuper said support for him in the city runs the gamut, as she listed off the neighborhood’s where she’s seen campaign signs.

Kansas voters were considering a measure that would make the seven justices elected statewide starting in 2028 rather than initially appointed by the governor.

The proposal, an amendment to the state constitution, is backed by Republican legislators, abortion opponents and other conservative activists. They believe voters would choose more conservative justices who would overturn the high court’s landmark 2019 ruling that the Kansas Constitution protects access to abortion.

Those lawmakers and activists backed a proposed amendment in 2022 that would have nullified the decision, but voters soundly rejected it.

Currently, a lawyer-led commission screens Supreme Court applicants and picks three nominees for each vacancy. The governor chooses from that list, and legislators have no role. Voters then decide every six years whether they want each justice to stay on the bench.

Missouri’s top election official has rejected a citizens’ petition seeking a statewide referendum on new congressional districts backed by President Donald Trump.

Supporters of the referendum had submitted hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in a bid to force a November election on a new U.S. House map approved by the Republican-led state Legislature. But Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins asserted Tuesday that the petition is unconstitutional because congressional redistricting plans cannot be subject to voter referendums.

A group backing the referendum effort has said it will challenge Hoskins’ decision in court.

The new map, which is being used in Tuesday’s primaries, dramatically reshapes the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District, held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, by stretching it into rural central Missouri to give it a Republican tilt. Republicans already hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats and hope to gain another under the new map.

Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. John James and invited him onstage during a recent rally in the state. Business owner Perry Johnson, who’s also seeking the nomination, held a tailgate with supporters at the same event.

Most of the candidates backed by Trump have won their primaries across the country this year — but not all of them.

In Texas, Trump’s endorsement boosted Ken Paxton in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate over Sen. John Cornyn. In Louisiana, Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow won the Republican nomination for Senate over Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict the president during his 2021 impeachment trial.

After Indiana state lawmakers rejected a White House-backed redistricting plan last year, Trump endorsed seven state Senate candidates, most of whom won their primaries in May.

Trump-endorsed candidates who lost their primaries for governor include Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa and Burt Jones in Georgia.

In the Democratic primary for Michigan governor, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is the frontrunner against Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.

Bernie Henderix, 58, of Detroit, voted Tuesday for state Rep. Donavan McKinney in the Democratic 13th House District primary.

McKinney is challenging incumbent Shri Thanedar. Detroit has not had Black representation in Congress since 2022. McKinney is Black. Thanedar was born in India.

Henderix said he’s heard good things about McKinney and it’s important for the city to have Black congressional representation. “But I want the best person I think is going to represent us the best way,” he said.

He also voted for U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens over Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

“I like the way she talks. I know she talks about she’s going to go up against Trump, so I really like that,” Henderix said. “We need somebody to check him (Trump). He’s out of control.”

Henderix does have concerns about the current state of the Democratic party.

“We’re too weak,” Henderix said, adding that he doesn’t like the split between traditional Democrat and progressives. “We’re Democrats. But I think everybody is getting sick of this Trump mentality.”

Jordan Snyder, 20, said she was voting for Abdul El-Sayed because of his advocacy for Palestinians, opposition to data centers and the fact that she views him as “a candidate that I feel like I can trust.”

El-Sayed’s progressive platform has proven popular among younger voters, some of whom say they are disillusioned with both political parties.

“People are feeling like a lot of the people that they’ve trusted that have been in government haven’t really been living up to expectations,” Snyder said.

She believes people are more willing to vote for a progressive candidate than in the past, citing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who ran a viral social media campaign and was buoyed by younger voters. Snyder said she has heard more directly from El-Sayed on social media and thinks he has a good chance of winning against Republican Mike Rogers in the November general election, especially if a lot of younger people vote.

“As far as me and my friends are concerned, he’s kind of the only candidate we’re interested in,” Snyder said.

Two-term Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly cannot run again, and both major parties had contentious campaigns ahead of Tuesday’s primaries.

The departing governor’s party has lost every open race for governor since 1962, but Democrats hope centrist voters unhappy with President Donald Trump and worried about the state shifting hard to the right will help them break that trend.

Republican candidates include Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt and a Kansas City-area businessman Philip Sarnecki.

The Democrats running are state Sens. Ethan Corson and Cindy Holscher and Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog.

The Missouri measure marks the first time since the modern income tax began over a century ago that a U.S. state legislature has asked voters whether to eliminate the tax.

Amendment 5 would direct the legislature to phase out the individual income tax as state revenue grows. To spur that along, it also allows lawmakers to expand the sales tax to “any goods and services.” It gives them five years to decide which sales to tax without needing further voter approval.

Alaska is the only state so far to impose a general individual income tax and then repeal it, doing so in 1980 by a legislative vote.

Massachusetts voters rejected income tax eliminations in 2008 and 2002 that were initiated by citizens, not lawmakers.

Republican voter Chris Weymouth, 85, cast a ballot in a Richmond suburb for Bert Mizusawa in the Republican Senate primary. The winner of that three-way race will face a stiff general election challenge from Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the longtime, well-funded incumbent.

Weymouth, who said Democrats have moved so far left she would “never” consider voting for one, said Mizusawa — a decorated Army veteran — won her support in the primary because she believed he would put America first, support the Constitution and protect America’s freedoms. Her faith also guided her vote, she said.

Devin Garcia, 30, voted in suburban Richmond for Salaam Bhatti, a public interest lawyer running for the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s 1st Congressional District. The winner of the seven-way nomination contest will face longtime Republican incumbent Rob Wittman. The 1st district leans red, but Democrats are hopeful they can flip it.

Garcia backed Bhatti over more centrist candidates in the race, including establishment favorite Shannon Taylor, wanting someone “gung ho” about supporting progressive politics, including diversity initiatives, abortion access and affordable health care.

“I do think that we need more bold people that are going to take a real stand. The Trump administration isn’t fighting fair, and I think caught the Democrats on the back foot,” Garcia said.

Birmingham resident Nessa Fuller, 51, said she voted for Stevens because she will “fight to get the right things done, and she’ll work with other people.”

Fuller, who wore a Haley Stevens T-shirt outside her polling place, said she has progressive values but no longer identifies with the term as it has swung too far left. Rhetoric within the progressive wing that Fuller describes as antisemitic has overshadowed what she supports, she said, including in El-Sayed’s campaign.

“Here’s the deal with Abdul, I think, in the Jewish community. The question is, do you vote for your values? Do you take Israel out of the equation and say, these are social justice issues that we agree with, and I’m going to vote for you?” Fuller, who is Jewish, said. “I don’t think one issue should crowd out everything else. So it’s a conundrum.”

While Fuller agrees with some elements of El-Sayed’s campaign and said she would vote for him in November if he wins the primary, she isn’t sure all Democratic voters will do the same.

A six-way Republican primary will settle who will try to unseat Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in a dramatically reshaped district.

Missouri was the second Republican state, after Texas, to respond to Trump’s call last year to redraw congressional districts to the GOP’s advantage ahead of the midterms. The revamped map stretches Cleaver’s Kansas City district eastward into rural central Missouri to give the new 5th District a Republican tilt.

The GOP race features state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Marine veteran and founding member of the conservative Missouri Freedom Caucus. Brattin and fellow primary contestant Taylor Burks both ran unsuccessfully in 2022 for an open seat in Missouri’s 4th District.

Burks is a Navy officer who once served as a local election official in the University of Missouri’s home of Boone County.

Cleaver is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

El-Sayed stopped by Detroit’s Eastern Market to talk to voters, going at one point to dance with a group of ladies in a Zumba class at the market.

“That’s generally how we operate,” El-Sayed told AP about the joyful tone to end his campaign. “The hope here is we build a world where people are free to actually fully enjoy their lives.”

Rep. Shri Thanedar is trying to fend off a primary challenge from state Rep. Donavan McKinney in a heavily Democratic district representing Detroit.

Thanedar first won election in 2022, marking the first time since the early 1950s that Detroit had no Black representation in Congress.

McKinney wants to change that. He’s trying to win office in the 13th District, which includes most of Detroit and other parts of Wayne County.

Thanedar was born in Indian. Since 2022, Democrat Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian American, has represented the 12th Congressional District, which also includes other parts of Detroit.

McKinney, who is Black, first was elected in 2022 to Michigan’s state House. He has been endorsed by influential progressive U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and several Detroit-area state lawmakers.

The elections office in Spokane County, where wildfires have forced thousands to evacuate and destroyed hundreds of structures, says some voters are reporting that they had left their ballots behind when their homes were evacuated.

The secretary of state’s office says any voter who needs a replacement ballot should print one off the state’s website or go to a county elections office to receive one. Election officials say they have two centers open in Spokane County to help affected voters.

“We are here to assist them and ensure they can cast a ballot,” Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said in an online post. “This is one small aspect of normalcy we can offer in what is otherwise a traumatic and overwhelming situation.”

The state’s most closely watched primary, in the 3rd Congressional District, was far south of the major wildfires.

Washington conducts its elections almost entirely with mail ballots.

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens cast her ballot Tuesday afternoon at a public library in her hometown of Birmingham, Michigan, amid a slow trickle of voters.

“We’re getting everybody all excited and we’re ready for tomorrow,” she said. “I think we’re seeing a lot of great turnout.”

While speaking to the press, she positioned herself as someone who will focus on local priorities.

“Our voices often times get drowned out. They get drowned out by podcasts. They get drowned out by, you know, Twitch streamers. They get drowned out by other national priorities,” she said.

Both parties are focused on the open U.S. Senate race to the south, in North Carolina, but Virginia is not expected to be a battleground this year.

Democrats are confident that Sen. Mark Warner, a moderate who was first elected in 2008, will win reelection in November, and independent analysts rate the seat as safely blue. Voters will be deciding among three Republicans who hope to take on Warner in the fall.

The GOP contenders are: Kim Farington, an accountant who has touted her work over decades in the federal government; Bert Mizusawa, a decorated retired Army major general; and David Williams, a Marine Corps reservist.

Warner, who does not have a primary challenger, is a well-known former governor who currently serves as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He will have a massive cash advantage and name recognition in a state where Trump has proven deeply unpopular.

Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse’s retirement created a frenzy of interest to replace him.

Eleven candidates will be on the ballot for the 4th Congressional District, a Republican stronghold in Washington’s agricultural center, including Yakima and the Tri-Cities. Six are Republicans, one is a Democrat, and the other four are from minor parties or unaffiliated.

The GOP dominates the district, so the primary could prove decisive if the top-two structure creates a traditional Republican vs. Democrat matchup in November.

Newhouse is one of two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump. The other is Rep. David Valadao of California, whose district is a top pickup target for Democrats.

Madison Francis voted Tuesday in Southfield, Michigan, for Abdul El-Sayed saying she especially supports his views on things like inclusion.

“Just having somebody that sees everybody and wants the best for everybody,” said Francis, a 19-year-old student at Michigan State University. “I feel like the world is very divided, right now.”

Francis also believes that if El-Sayed wins Tuesday’s Democratic primary over U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, Michigan voters are open-minded enough to elect him over Republican Mike Rogers in the November general election.

She said the United States is being run by “some interesting Republicans,” and that the Democratic party should focus on unity before the nation spirals “further out of control.”

Young voters also are having a hard time hearing what traditional Democrats are saying and that messaging by progressives appear more fluid.

“I think they’re taking more of a progressive and proactive stance,” she said of young voters. “Both the Republicans and Democrats can sometimes (come across as) being too rigid on their stances.”

People walk in to the voting area at Maples Elementary School on primary election day Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Nic Antaya)

Michigan residents turn out to vote in the midterm elections at Sibley Elementary School in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (Isaac Ritchey/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)