A Russian strike on Odesa, Ukraine, killed 12 people, including the daughter and grandson of Odesa Baptist pastor Nikolai Sidak.
The pastor’s son-in-law Serhiy Haidarzh was putting 3-year-old daughter Liza to bed in her room, and wife Anna (Sidak’s daughter) was lying down with their 4-month-old son Timothy in the nursery when a Russian drone hit, destroying their apartment building, CNN reported March 4.
Serhiy and Liza survived. Anna and Timothy did not.
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“Anna and the baby were buried under tons of concrete rubbles. Later, doctors said they died immediately while sleeping. Their bodies were found at about 4 p.m. the next day,” said Igor Bandura, vice president of the Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine.
Bandura described Nikolai Sidak as the “well-known and respected pastor of an independent Baptist church in Odessa.”
In addition to the 12 fatalities, another 20 people were injured, some critically.
Of the 12 people killed in the Russian strike, five were children. Timothy Haidarzh was the youngest. The others ranged in age from 8 months to 9 years old.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Ken Camp and originally published by Baptist Standard.