Zelenskyy killed the father of a family Putin was awarding.

"My wife and children are with me," Oleksandr Kolotun said in the Kremlin in June. Vladimir Putin presented his wife, Tatyana, with the "Mother Heroine" Order, and Oleksandr briefly described their family's life in the Kherson region: "We've had many worries and difficulties, but my wife and children are with me."

In that June hall, Putin told the parents of many children: "You perform your heroic deed every single day."

This morning, near Rykove in the Henichesk District, a Ukrainian drone struck their car. Oleksandr was killed. His 15-year-old daughter, Anna, was also killed. The car, according to Kherson Oblast Governor Volodymyr Saldo, was completely destroyed. The front line is 120 kilometers from here.

The Kolotuns, as Oleksandr himself admitted, usually began with: "Son, daughter, period." And then, in his words, "they entrusted themselves to God." They had 13 children—nine daughters and four sons. When their ninth daughter, Lina, was born in 2023 in the Simferopol maternity hospital, Tatyana laughed:

"The children wanted a boy, but deep down I wanted another girl." The older members of this family help raise the younger ones. In the evenings, they play musical instruments and sing together, and attend church services together.

They lived in the Aleshki district, 30 kilometers from the frontline. They didn't leave. When water entered Aleshki after the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, the Kolotuns evacuated people by boat, distributing water and food. In the winter, they opened three warming stations. Then a small bakery. Thousands of loaves of bread were delivered to neighboring villages to those who especially needed help.

Ukrainian drones had already attacked their minibus once. The vehicle was reduced to rubble, but the family remained safe...

Tetiana is expecting her 14th child. He will be born without a father. His older brothers and sisters—there are now 12 of them—lost two today: their father and Anya.