In a haunting echo of history, Nataliia Khodemchuk, the Ukrainian widow of Valerii Khodemchuk – the first person to die in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster – has died after sustaining severe injuries in a Russian drone strike on Kyiv. The 73-year-old was critically wounded on Friday night (November 14), when a Shahed-style drone struck her apartment block in the Troieshchyna district, according to the State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management.
Her flat, located in a building known to house former Chernobyl workers and their relatives, was reportedly “burned out completely” in the strike. Nataliia reportedly suffered burns on approximately 45% of her body and was taken to a specialist burn center near the Chernihivska metro station in Kyiv. However, her treatment was complicated by serious underlying health issues, including Type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease and hypertension, according to medical reports. Despite the efforts of medics, she died in the hospital during the early hours of Saturday (November 15).
Nataliia was married to Valerii Khodemchuk, a circulating-pump operator at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl plant, who perished in the first moments of the disaster when that very reactor exploded. His body was never recovered from the rubble and still remains trapped.
After the catastrophe, Nataliia moved from Pripyat and settled in Kyiv, but she never stopped preserving her husband's memory. She visited his symbolic grave at Mytinsky Cemetery and took part in remembrance events. She leaves behind two children and grandchildren.
Her death brings the total number of confirmed fatalities from the November 14 missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv to seven, also including a kindergarten teacher. Residents of the building included other Chernobyl figures, such as Oleksii Ananenko, a former Chernobyl engineer and one of the three volunteers who helped avert a second explosion at the plant.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly mourned her passing, calling it “a new tragedy caused once again by the Kremlin,” and renewed his plea to Western allies for increased air-defense support to protect civilian lives.
The attack is part of a broader escalation, as Russia has stepped up its use of both missiles and unmanned drones against Ukraine in recent months.
In a Facebook post published on Saturday (November 15), the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management said: “The war unleashed by Russia took the life of Natalia Khodimchuk – the wife of the first victim of the Chernobyl disaster Valery Khodemchuk, a woman who carried through life love, loss and nezlamníst.
“It is with deep sadness and sincere sorrow that we announce the death of Natalia Romanivna Khodimchuk, wife of the first victim of the Chernobyl disaster Valery Khodemchuk, mother, grandmother, woman of a great heart and great destiny.
“She passed away on the night from November 14 to 15, without surviving the severe consequences of the “shaheda” strike on a residential building in Trinity.
“Mrs. Natalia was 73 years old. We bow our heads in front of her loving memory, her path, her resilience.”