Russia kills 4 civilians, including medic and teenager, in deliberate drone attack on ambulance in Sumy Oblast

Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy Oblast Military Administration, reported that four civilians, including one teenager, have been killed in a Russian drone attack on an ambulance in the Sumy Oblast.

“Another tragedy has occurred in Sumy Oblast today. A Russian drone killed four civilians. There were two brothers, one of them 17 years old, and a married couple. The woman was a medic. The enemy dropped an explosive device from a drone on the outskirts of the Znob-Novhorodske “hromada,” [a local government area that includes one or more nearby settlements]. The two brothers were injured by this explosive,” Hryhorov said.

According to the head of the Sumy Oblast Military Administration, medics arrived at the scene to provide first aid and hospitalize the brothers.

“On the way to the hospital, the Russians deliberately attacked the ambulance with a strike UAV. The vehicle caught fire. Only the driver managed to survive. He sustained severe burns and is in a hospital now,” he stated.

The Sumy Oblast Center for Emergency Medical Assistance and Disaster Medicine reported that among the dead is a paramedic from the Shostka substation, 25-year-old Khrystyna Slavska.

Killed by Russians 25-year-old Khrystyna Slavska

Khrystyna’s husband, Serhiy Slavskyy, who was a police officer, was also killed in the same attack. He was 32 years old, the National Police of Ukraine reported.

Serhiy Slavskyy

An emergency medical technician from the brigade suffered severe injuries and burns and is currently in critical condition, medical officials added.

To provide background, on February 21, Russian forces also targeted the Odesa Oblast and the Sumy hromada. The attack on Sumy injured three civilians, including two children. In the Odesa region, two additional injuries were reported.

Within 24 hours of taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has not secured an end to Russia’s war as he promised. Furthermore, numerous Ukrainian and international experts point out that the U.S., as a guarantor state under the Budapest Memorandum, is pressuring Kyiv into capitulation.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump over a rise in civilian war casualties in Ukraine since he took office in 2025.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate pointed out that the number of Ukrainian civilians killed or injured because of the war rose by 31% compared to the previous year. She asked why Trump’s year of negotiations was the deadliest for Ukraine’s civilian population since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“Why did Putin not allow himself such brutal strikes on civilian infrastructure under Biden, whom Trump calls ‘weak,’ but totally destroys peaceful cities and disregards the ‘strong Trump’?” she asekd on her Facebook page. 

Earlier, Bohdan Bernatskyy, a member of the Sanctions Policy Working Group of the Crimean Platform Expert Network, revealed at the Third Parliamentary Summit in Latvia that over 1,300 Russian military companies and 2 million industrial workers continue to operate, many without international restrictions.

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