Five Killed in Russian Airstrike on Izium Disease Control Lab
The attack on October 29 hit a facility that staff had manually restored to full operation just weeks after Ukrainian forces recaptured the city.
By Fatima Saleh ·
A Russian guided aerial bomb strike on October 29 killed five women employed by the Kharkiv Oblast Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Izium, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.
The victims were part of a small team that returned to the facility shortly after the city was liberated from Russian occupation. Viktoriia Prokopenko, who headed the sanitary and hygiene laboratory, was among the dead. Prokopenko had worked in healthcare for 36 years and was scheduled to turn 59 on November 3. Yuliia Dovzhenko, a bacteriology laboratory technician with nearly 38 years of experience, was also killed. She was 57.
Valentyna Prus, 55, served as a laboratory technician in the sanitary and hygiene department since 2021. Anzhela Prokhortseva, a 54-year-old accountant, was speaking on the phone with colleagues at the oblast center when the bomb struck. Witnesses on the line heard the whistling of the incoming projectile and Prokhortseva’s attempts to flee before the connection dropped. Olena Hryshchenko, a 58-year-old cleaner, was the fifth person killed in the blast.
The Ministry of Health stated that the staff cleared damaged premises and swept up shattered glass to restore laboratory operations. They aimed to continue protecting local health and safety. Prokpenko is survived by her husband, daughter, and grandson. Dovzhenko leaves behind a husband, son, two granddaughters, and a sister. Prus is survived by a husband and daughter, while Prokhortseva is survived by two daughters.
The October 29 attack involved three guided aerial bombs. The strike resulted in five deaths and injured 12 other people in Izium. In a separate incident in Kharkiv Oblast, Russian forces dropped 10 guided aerial bombs on a village, killing 80-year-old Valentyna Mikhnova.
