Chernobyl Victim's Widow Dies in Kyiv Strike

Nataliia Khodemchuk, the 73-year-old widow of the first victim of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, died in Kyiv on Friday after suffering severe burns in a Russian drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital. The strike targeted her apartment in the Troieshchyna district, part of a residential complex built for Chernobyl workers and their families, early in the morning of November 15.

Khodemchuk was hospitalized with burns covering 45 percent of her body but succumbed to her injuries at a burn center near the Chernihivska metro station. Her death raised the toll from the assault on Kyiv to seven people killed and at least 35 injured, according to city officials. The attack involved around 430 drones and 18 missiles, striking residential buildings across eight of the capital's 10 districts and causing widespread damage to civilian infrastructure.

The building hit in Troieshchyna, often called "Chernobyl House," also housed other survivors of the disaster. Oleksiy Ananenko, 66, one of three engineers who in 1986 drained radioactive water beneath the reactor to prevent a second explosion, escaped unharmed when debris and fire damaged his apartment. His wife, Valentyna,...