Russians killed a couple who were trying to evacuate from Sumy Oblast

Russian forces killed two civilians in the Sumy region borderlands on January 27, 2026, as they were attempting to evacuate from a high-risk area, reported Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy Oblast Military Administration.

Valentyna and Valeriy Klochkov. Family photo provided by Oleksandr Klochkov / Collage by Andriy Yurchenya, Suspilne Sumy public broadcaster

According to Hryhorov, the man was transporting his injured wife on a sledge toward a safer area. During transportation, the Russian military intentionally targeted the couple, fully aware they were civilians.

The first strike killed the 52-year-old woman. Shortly after, a second FPV drone strike killed her husband.

“These people could have been saved. Но repeated enemy attacks stripped them of any chance to reach safety. This is yet another Russian war crime,” Hryhorov emphasized.

He expressed his deepest condolences to the relatives and loved ones of the deceased family.

The official also urged residents of border communities not to delay evacuation, noting that remaining in the border area during heightened FPV drone activity is life-threatening.

The nephew of a couple from Hrabovske, Oleksandr Klochkov, recounted the details of their killing to Suspilne Sumy public broadcaster.

“This was the Klochkov family — my father’s brother and his wife. My uncle’s name was Valeriy, and his wife was Valentyna. They lived in Hrabovske. Around 2016, they moved to the same street as my parents, into my grandparents’ house. They had no children. They were kind, empathetic people who were friends with many and were very good neighbors,” said Oleksandr Klochkov, the nephew of the deceased.

Currently, his parents are in Russia — they were abducted by Russians from Hrabovske in December 2025. Meanwhile, Valeriy and Valentyna Klochkov had remained in the village the entire time, living in a cellar.

Klochkov elaborated that after the Russians entered Hrabovske on December 18, his parents were taken captive.

“We located them in Russia. As my grandmother told it, she was at a neighbor’s house three doors down. Russian soldiers entered that house. My grandmother asked to go to her son to warn him that they were being taken to Russia. They didn’t allow it, saying they would handle it themselves. My parents were taken. Later, our troops mounted a counter-resistance — and so the Russians simply never reached my uncle and aunt. They lived in the root cellar all this time. As I understand it, my aunt either fell ill or they simply couldn’t endure staying there anymore — so he decided to leave. The guys saw him pulling her on a sledge from Hrabovske. They had covered almost seven kilometers from the village — a significant distance, yet only halfway. We were already prepared; a car was ready to head out and pick them up.”

According to Klochkov, the Russians attacked with several drones. The first one missed.

“They walked another half-kilometer. Then my uncle sat down to rest and saw a drone. It hit my aunt — a direct strike. She was on the sledge; she was torn apart. Then my uncle sat by her side, crying for about an hour. And then they launched two more.”

Oleksandr Klochkov said that as of January 28, it has been impossible to evacuate the bodies because Russian servicemen are preventing it.

“The Russian military saw these people perfectly well. I mean, there was another person sitting on the other side of that drone, and they were the ones striking. I think they knew them by sight because they had been there for such a long time; they saw everything. They walked seven kilometers on foot; they [Russian operators] saw who they were hitting. There are simply no words to describe what kind of people were sitting at that remote control to do such a thing to unarmed civilians. I just want the world to see who the Russians are fighting against,” he added.

To provide background, earlier, in the Sumy Oblast, police recently assisted an elderly resident in evacuating to a safer area. Antonina Ivanivna, 91, lived in the Bilopillia “hromada,” a local government area that includes one or more nearby settlements. The community’s center is located just a few kilometers from the Russian border, leaving residents to suffer from constant shelling since nearly the first day of the full-scale war.

For a long time, the woman was reluctant to leave her home, having spent her entire life there and having witnessed war firsthand as a child. Throughout the year she was being persuaded to leave, the situation in the region continued to deteriorate. Eventually, she was left without electricity, heating, or communications.