Youngest child was 2 months old: what is known about family killed by Russian missile in Kryvyi Rih – photo

A mother and three children were killed in a Russian attack on Kryvyi Rih. The youngest was only 2 months old. Source: Oleksandr Vilkul, Head of Kryvyi Rih City Military Administration

Details: On the morning of 11 November, Russia attacked Kryvyi Rih with a ballistic missile launched from Crimea. The strike destroyed the third and fourth entrances and the roof of a five-storey residential building.

The attack claimed the lives of 32-year-old Olena Kulyk and her three children: 10-year-old Kyrylo, Demyd, who was 2 years and 9 months old, and 2-month-old Uliana. The only survivor of the family was the father, Maksym Kulyk.

The man survived because he was in another room at the time of the attack. "My son went to the kitchen to cook breakfast. He survived; he fell to the first floor," Maksym Kulyk's mother, Iryna, told Suspilne.Dnipro.

The woman was at work when the explosion rang out.

She says she immediately started calling her family, but they did not answer. Then she went to their house. The search operation lasted until the morning of 12 November.

At midnight, rescue workers uncovered the woman's body. Later, they found the two older children, and only in the morning - the youngest.

A child's shoe in the destroyed house.Photo: Dnipropetrovsk State Emergency Service/Facebook

"It was a very nice couple. They were everywhere together!

They're a great family," wrote Yevhenia Bezymenko under one of the Instagram posts, who noted that she knew the family personally. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih company said that Olena Kulyk worked for its subsidiary, Stil Service. She was a cargo and luggage receiver at the railway shop.

At the time of the tragedy, the woman was on maternity leave. According to the Kryvyi Rih-based Rudana TV channel, Maksym Kulyk and his mother, Iryna, also work for ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih. The man is a railway dispatcher.

The family are members of the Blahoslovinnia (Blessing) Church in the village of Radushne. "They came to us about 6-7 years ago. Since then, they have been helping the needy, distributing lunches to homeless people in the Skhidnyi and Sotsmisto [districts of Kryvyi Rih - ed.], and in the House of Comfort.

Maksym took part in all our events and helped in children's shelters. They were People with a capital P. Olenka was also a member of our church, but she was busy with her three children.

She was a good woman, a wonderful mum to the kids, and had a very kind heart. She supported Maksym in his help to the needy," evangelist Mykola Koroliuk told the TV channel. The funeral service will be held on Thursday, 14 November, at the Salvation House of Prayer, 22A Sobornosti Street.

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