Kyiv Mourns Loss in Deadliest Attack Since Invasion

Kyiv, Aug 6 (AP) Natalia Haiova, a cherished kindergarten teacher in Kyiv, was renowned for her artistic talents, often displayed in her drawings, flower arrangements, and decorations. Last week, she tragically lost her life in a Russian strike on a nine-story building in the Svyatoshinsky district of the capital. The attack, which affected multiple neighborhoods in Kyiv, resulted in the deaths of 31 individuals, including five children, making it the deadliest assault on the capital since the commencement of the full-scale invasion.

Haiova, 46, perished alongside her sons, Vladyslav, 21, and Roman, 17, as well as her brother Oleksandr Naralyk, 44. The family was trapped under rubble when the apartment building collapsed.

On Tuesday, friends and family gathered to pay their final respects as Haiova, her sons, and her brother were laid to rest in a Kyiv cemetery. Nadia Kolisnyk, 56, the headmaster at the school where Haiova taught, expressed that Haiova would be remembered as a supportive and knowledgeable professional, in addition to her creative spirit. “You saw the beauty she created. All the flowers, the decorations — it was all her golden hands,” Kolisnyk said.

Arthur Kulishenko, 22, a classmate of Vladyslav, recounted his experience of visiting the site of the attack and waiting for his friend's remains to be recovered. “We knew he was under the rubble and just waited,” he stated. “There were just rocks. The building just crumbled there. It collapsed like a sliced cake.”

Haiova had relocated during the pandemic to a house that had belonged to her father. She quickly secured employment at a nearby kindergarten, according to her sister, Olena Stetsiuk, 46. As drone and missile attacks intensified on the capital in June, Stetsiuk would frequently message her sister to check on her wellbeing. Haiova often replied that she was too exhausted to move to the basement for shelter. However, the increasing intensity and noise of more recent attacks convinced her to take cover.

Stetsiuk recalled a final shopping trip with her sister, during which they were browsing for black garments for a friend's funeral. “We chose, walked around, laughed,” she reminisced. “And we chose this blouse with her. She said, take this one. And we went to my place. We sat, discussed it, and looked some more.” Stetsiuk donned the same blouse to her sister's funeral just two weeks later. (AP)

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