War-weary country says Washington’s withdrawal of missile defence aid is ‘collusion with Putin’ and attempt to force Zelensky’s surrender

Antonia Langford

Published 21 October 2026

The drone that killed one-year-old Anhelina circled above a park before dropping on to a nearby path and exploding.

The shrapnel killed six people in Nova Vodolaha, a small town outside Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv. The girl’s mother also died.

Pictures from the immediate aftermath show Anhelina belted carefully into her pram, the laces on her peach-coloured shoes tied into neat bows.

She was dressed in a warm bear-shaped maroon romper with small felt ears. Her tiny hands were stained with blood.

Images of Anhelina were circulated widely after the attack, at the same time as Ukrainians across the country were seething at the reduction of US support. 

The US in recent days has been accused of hampering Ukraine’s air defence by imposing connectivity restrictions on drone interceptors and delaying access to intelligence required to counter ballistic missiles.

Zel on X :

Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський@ZelenskyyUa

A horrific Russian strike in the Kharkiv region. A “shahed” struck people directly – in a park near an ordinary café. Pure atrocity. Six people were killed, including children. A little girl was killed in a stroller – her name was Angelina, she was just over a year old, born in August 2025… Her mother’s name was Inna. She died in the hospital… Another girl who was killed was 11 years old. My condolences to their families and loved ones. Another 14 people were injured, including six more children. I am grateful to everyone who supports Ukraine under these circumstances and helps us shoot down “shaheds,” shoot down missiles, and stop Russian assaults. These are horrific photos, but behind them are shattered lives and the truth about this war. Lives must be protected. Ukraine needs air defense. You can’t think about making money with Russia as long as it continues its asinine war. We ask that sanctions on Russia stay in place as long as the killings continue. We ask America to be strong, and we ask it to apply the Lindsey Graham law. We ask Europe to continue its support. We ask that everything possible be done to bring peace and guarantee security. Ukraine wants peace. It is Russia that has insisted on continuing the killing all this time. The world has enough strength to stop the war. That strength must finally be used – against the murderers.

……….

Anhelina was killed alongside her mother, Inna Maryukhna, 28.

A friend of Inna’s told The Telegraph: “Her whole life revolved around children. She was always working – tutoring, preparing children for school, then she decided to become a children’s entertainer, eventually hosting events in our village. 

“She was always genuine, smiling, full of energy – like a little firecracker!”

The friend described how Inna gave birth to Anhelina the day before her own birthday, which she saw as a gift as she had always wanted a daughter. Anhelina was described as “full of joy, absolutely adorable”.

It is not clear why Ukraine was unable to shoot down the drone.

Some Ukrainian officials say the US has blood on its hands over its reduction in support for Ukraine, but have stopped short of blaming specific deaths on the White House.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, on Tuesday dismissed the claims as “scandalous”.

The attack on the park, however, coincided with the highest civilian casualty rate since the start of the Russian invasion.

The UN says that the first two weeks of October were “among the deadliest periods for civilians in years” in Ukraine.

On Tuesday morning, a Russian drone struck a busy highway near Kyiv, setting cars ablaze and killing three people.

Throughout the day, drones hit medical facilities in two districts as well as an operating room at a cardiology institute, injuring at least five.

Ukraine has accused the US of colluding with Russia to force Ukraine’s surrender by restricting access to US-provided satellite internet, delaying deliveries of pre-purchased Patriot missile interceptors and withholding intelligence warnings of incoming ballistic missiles.

“I believe steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate,” Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, told Bloomberg News on Sunday. “That’s how it looks.”

Last week, Elon Musk’s SpaceX imposed a speed limit on its Starlink internet network in Ukraine, cutting off connectivity for drones travelling faster than 100mph.

The measures, which cripple fast-moving interceptors aimed at bringing down Russia’s swarms of regular and jet-powered drones to protect Ukrainian skies, remain in place as of this week, according to Mr Zelensky.

They have also put a dent in Ukraine’s mid-range strike operations aimed at cutting off Russian logistics at the front. Russian military bloggers boasted on Monday that Moscow’s forces had all but restored free movement along the Novorossiya supply route, nicknamed “the highway of death” due to the ubiquity of Ukrainian drones earlier this year.

Meanwhile, it emerged earlier this week that the White House had blocked transfers of Patriot missiles paid for by European countries under the PURL initiative, despite critical shortages in Kyiv’s stockpile.

Further impeding Ukraine’s defence, the country’s air force has repeatedly received no early warning of Russian ballistic missile strikes, galvanising speculation over whether the US could be withholding intelligence.

US officials have denied the claims, attributing the mishaps to technical issues, software glitches or weather-related data interruptions. However, a Ukrainian defence source told The Telegraph that there was speculation behind the scenes of “deliberate sabotage by the Trump administration”.

Separately, Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, an air force reserve officer and head of an arms manufacturing company, said that he suspected the errors masked an attempt by Washington to “delicately calibrate the level of support… without making loud political statements”.

The slate of restrictions on Kyiv’s defensive capabilities has coincided with a revival of the US-led negotiating track with the Kremlin and a bitter decline in relations between Kyiv and Washington.

The US president has suggested he is prepared to meet Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in China to strike a deal to end the war, in a summit which would exclude Mr Zelensky.

Meanwhile, he has rejected a bipartisan law to hit Russia with a fresh round of tariffs and cut a deal to purchase millions of tonnes of Moscow’s diesel. His envoys are set to meet Putin in his home city, St Petersburg, later this week.

US officials have vociferously denied claims that their actions have been aimed at harming, or have unintentionally caused harm to, Ukrainian civilians.

“I saw someone associated with the Ukrainian government say that people in Ukraine are dying because the US is denying them information,” Mr Rubio told journalists on a visit to India.

“That’s scandalous. That’s outrageous. That’s simply not true. That’s not accurate,” he insisted.

“Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” Mr Trump told reporters on Monday. “They haven’t been doing much.”

Among the other victims of the attack in the park in northeastern Ukraine was 34-year-old Yulia Spichak.

She had dropped off 10-year-old son, “little Yarik”, at his English lesson, before stopping at the park to enjoy a coffee in the dwindling sun.

“One photo survived, showing her sitting there with her coffee,” her sister Alina told The Telegraph. “And at that very moment, a drone exploded right over her head.”

“In a split second, Yulia was gone. She stayed sitting in that chair with the blood flowing out of her. Everyone recognised her from the photograph – she was wearing the necklace I had given her for her birthday,” she recalled through tears.

“You could say she was our little ray of sunshine,” Alina continued. “She’d just start laughing out of the blue. But that positivity… she took all the joy out of our family when she left us.”

Several others, including 11-year-old Arina Koval, were killed in the attack, while seven remain hospitalised, including four children, aged 15, 12, seven and six.

At Anhelina’s first birthday party in August, the devoted mother made a video compilation with a voice-over to show guests.

In the video she described what it felt like to have her long-awaited daughter.

“I had dreamed of this day for so long,” Inna said in the video. “I had prepared so much and thought through every little detail. This was all my dream.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/10/21/ukrainians-turn-on-us-russian-strike-kills-baby-pram/