A married Ukrainian couple who had been teenage sweethearts lie frozen and unrecovered in the snow after being killed one by one by Russian drones as they fled their occupied village.
Valentyna Klochkov, 52, and her husband Valerii, 54, were attempting to escape Hrabovske in Ukraine’s Sumy region when they were spotted from the sky and hunted down in what witnesses describe as a slow and deliberate killing.
First to die was Valentyna, already wounded and seated upright on a makeshift sledge as her husband dragged her through the frozen lane leading out of the village.
A Russian FPV kamikaze drone slammed into her, tearing her apart. But instead of running for safety, Valerii knelt beside his wife’s body and refused to leave.
Moments later, another drone arrived and killed him too.
Footage captured by a drone shows the wounded husband sobbing beside the body of his wife before he is struck. The couple had been married for 33 years.
A week later, their bodies remain where they fell, unreachable in the harsh winter battlefield.
Their deaths have become a haunting symbol of the ordinary civilians caught in the crosshairs of the conflict.
‘They were kind and gentle people, who lived a simple life together and loved one another very much,’ Valentyna’s sister, Oksana Zyma, 53, told The Times.
‘The thought of my sister lying scattered in the snow, unrecovered, is unbearable.’
Hrabovske, a small border village that once had more than 400 residents, fell to Russian troops from the 34th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade on December 19.
Many villagers had already fled, but dozens stayed behind, including the klochkovs.
Valentyna worked in the local shop, while Valerii was a tractor mechanic.
‘Their choice to stay was simple,’ Zyma explained. ‘They were Ukrainians, living in their own home, on their own land, in their own country. They did not want to leave it for somewhere else.’
After seizing the village, Russian forces rounded up dozens of residents, forcing 52 people into the local church before deporting them to Russia a day later.
The abductions sparked outrage across Ukraine and condemnation from President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha compared the operation to a terrorist hostage raid.
‘Russian invaders have stolen five dozen civilian people, mostly elderly women, from a tiny Ukrainian village, Hrabovske’ he said.
‘With such medieval raids, Putin’s Russia shows it is no different from terrorist groups like ISIS, Boko Haram, or Hamas. We demand our civilian hostages to be returned home.’
Propaganda videos released in January showed frightened civilians making statements in Russia, while another clip showed a captured Ukrainian soldier forced to praise Russian troops and sing the national anthem.
Yet the Klochkovs avoided capture by hiding in their cellar. Their family, meanwhile, desperately tried to contact them.
Zyma sent repeated messages that went unanswered, including questions around whether she was alive, sent on December 19.
Days later, she pleaded Valentyna to message her when she could, and on January 21, the final text was sent.
Zyma had wished her a happy birthday, but the message was never read.
Just six days later, driven by hunger and freezing temperatures, the couple emerged from hiding and attempted to flee.
Ukrainian rescuers spotted them and tried to coordinate a drone-based rescue, dropping a communications device to guide them to safety.
A police officer from the White Angels rescue unit, Olena Stavytska, described the frantic efforts to save them to the newspaper.
He revealed that the specialist unit began to gather a group of men to collect the couple, as the area is highly hazardous.
Stavytska went on to explain that the area is under constant surveillance with FPV drones flying overhead, which is why military assistance was required.
‘All of this was already planned and organised, and the time and meeting point were determined, where I was supposed to meet them, along with the soldiers,’ he said.
But Russian drones also tracked the couple. At around 1pm, as Valerii paused to rest, a drone struck his wife.
He stayed beside her as further drones circled. As darkness fell, another explosion killed him. The rescue mission was abandoned when no further movement was detected.
Their failed escape and their bodies still lying in the snow underscore the brutal reality of the conflict.
