Father stabbed and burned his 3-year-old son out of jealousy: a horrifying case in the Poltava region

In Poltava region investigators are probing the horrific murder of a young child. According to the investigation, the father himself confessed that the motive was jealousy toward his son.

In Poltava Oblast a 30-year-old resident of one of the villages was notified of suspicion of the intentional murder of his own 3-year-old son. This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General.

The notice of suspicion was approved and signed by the head of the Poltava Regional Prosecutor’s Office Yevhen Hladiy, who is the senior member of the group of procedural prosecutors.

The man is charged with intentional murder of a young child under paragraph 2 of part 2 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, the tragedy occurred on April 21, 2026. That morning the family woke up at about 05:00. The man told his wife to rest a little longer, and he went to the kitchen with his son.

There, as law enforcement established, he stabbed the child in the back with a knife. After that he submerged his son in a bathtub of water and inflicted several more blows.

When the man was convinced that the child was not breathing, he put the body in a backpack together with a jerrycan of gasoline and a kitchen spatula, left the house and went to the forest.

In the thicket, according to the investigation, the suspect dug a pit, placed the backpack with the child’s body inside, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. He covered the remains with sand and put a log on top.

During the investigation the man explained that the motive was jealousy toward his son: after the child was born, according to him, his wife paid more attention to the baby than to him.

The suspect has already been placed in pretrial detention.

The pretrial investigation is being carried out by investigators of the Investigative Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Poltava Oblast.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is considered innocent until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a guilty verdict of a court.

Earlier we wrote:

• In Mykolaiv a man nearly killed a child to take revenge on his ex-wife
• Defended the child — almost paid with his life: a drunk father attacked a person with a knife
• Drank energy drinks and killed her own child: the prosecutor’s office notified a young mother of suspicion
• “How much is the life of your children worth?” — a man killed his partner’s two-year-old son