Three days after an Iranian missile struck a residential building in the coastal city of Bat Yam, the names of five Ukrainian victims — all members of the same family — were released. All were civilians from Odessa who had come to Israel seeking life-saving cancer treatment for a young girl.
Seven-year-old Nastia Borik had been undergoing treatment in Israel for leukemia. She was killed in the missile strike along with her mother, Maria Peshkurova, 30; her grandmother, Lena Peshkurova, 60; and two of her young cousins, Konstantin Totvich, 9, and Ilya Peshkurov, 13. The two boys, who were Maria’s nephews on her mother’s side, attended local schools in Bat Yam.
The family, who are not Jewish, arrived in Israel in December 2022 to support Nastia through her cancer treatment. Although she initially responded, the disease returned and a bone marrow transplant failed to stop the aggressive leukemia.
Nastia’s father, Artem Borik, serves in the Ukrainian army’s Storm Brigade on the front line against Russia. He and Lena’s husband were unable to travel to Israel due to Ukraine’s restriction on men under 60 leaving the country due to the war. Artem had raised funds in Ukraine for his daughter’s medical care. Lena had come to Israel to assist her daughter, Maria, bringing the two nephews with her. All five were killed in the strike.
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The Ukrainian Embassy in Israel is working to arrange the repatriation of the bodies, but with Israeli airspace still closed, transport remains technically impossible. “They were Ukrainian citizens from Odessa who came to care for their daughter in Israel. There is a shared fate between Ukrainians and Israelis,” said historian and journalist Shimon Briman.
The Ukrainian Embassy said in a statement: “On June 14, five Ukrainian citizens, including three minors, were killed in a massive Iranian missile strike on Israel, when a missile hit a residential building in Bat Yam. Ukrainian diplomats and consular staff are in close contact with the Israel Police and other services to identify and arrange the repatriation of the victims’ bodies.”
The Bat Yam strike also claimed the lives of four Israeli civilians: Michael (Miki) Nahum, 61; Meir (Miro) Vaknin, 53; Bella Ashkenazi, 90; and Efrat Saranga, 44. More than 100 people were injured.
Rachel and Bat-El, two sisters who lived in the building, recounted the terrifying moment the missile struck. “We were in bed when it happened. We don’t have a reinforced room or a shelter,” Bat-El told Ynet. “There was a loud boom, we saw a flash from the missile and heavy smoke. Glass was everywhere, the windows shattered, the door blew off. We ran out and hid in the parking lot across the street.”