She was waiting for a train: what is known about mother of two killed in Russian attack on station in Kyiv Oblast

Eight people were killed at the Kvitneva railway station as a result of a Russian missile attack on the Brovary district in Kyiv Oblast on the night of 4-5 August.

Among them was 39-year-old Vita Horkavenko from Chernihiv Oblast. She was waiting for a delayed train, the Makiivka Village Territorial Hromada has reported.

Vita Horkavenko was born on 9 August 1986. She lived in the village of Stepovi Khutory in the Makiivka hromada, Chernihiv Oblast. She trained as a cook and pastry chef at the Nizhyn Vocational Lyceum of Household Services and Service Industry. [A hromada is an administrative unit designating a village, several villages, or a town, and their adjacent territories – ed.]

In 2009, she gave birth to her daughter Anastasiia, followed by her son Oleksandr four years later. She lived with her children and her parents – her mother Valentyna and father Mykola.

Vita worked at various businesses in both the Nizhyn district and Kyiv. Her most recent workplace was a warehouse in Kvitneve. On the night of 4-5 August, during a Russian missile attack, she was at the Kvitneva railway station, near the warehouse where she worked.

Vita and seven other people who were on the station platform were killed in the Russian attack on Ukrainian logistics centres.

Following the tragedy, two days of mourning were declared in the Makiivka hromada on 5 August.

"She was the most cheerful person in the world! A source of support and strength," Yuliia Onopriichuk, a friend of Vita, said.

"The most cheerful person in the world! A source of support and strength," Yuliia Onopriichuk, another friend of Vita, recalled.

Background: On the night of 3-4 August, Russian forces attacked Sumy with guided aerial bombs. Two sisters, five-year-old Emiliia Dvornichenko and 10-year-old Sofiia Dvornichenko, were killed in the strike. The children were trapped under the rubble of the house. Their parents managed to escape.

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