The attack occurred as the Kremlin was preparing to formally annexe the region along with three other regions of the nation that are only partially under its military control. Both sides blamed each other for the attack.
Over 20 people, including children, were killed in a strike or series of strikes on a civilian convoy overnight in southern Ukraine. This was one of the deadliest actions in Russia‘s conflict with its neighbour.
The strikes near Zaporizhzhia, which Ukrainian officials promptly denounced as a Russian war crime, took place as Moscow was getting ready to formally annexe the region as well as three other regions of the nation that are under its military’s partial control.
The head of the region’s pro-Moscow government placed the responsibility for the attack on the Ukrainian military forces at the same time.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has been contacted for comment, but the Russian government has not yet responded to the incident. The specifics of the attack have not yet been verified.
About 50 other persons were hurt in the attack on what the prosecutor general’s office of Ukraine called a “humanitarian convoy,” it added, adding that a criminal inquiry had been launched.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s advisor Kyrylo Tymoshenko made the following statement on Telegram: “The killing of Ukrainians and our Zaporizhian territory by the Russians never stops. The terror persists. The murders keep happening.”
The convoy at Zaporizhzhia, which was made up of civilians going to Russian-occupied territory to pick up relatives, was struck by four out of 16 anti-aircraft S-300 missiles, according to Tymoshenko. The Soviet-era missiles can be used to strike ground targets even though they are intended to strike aircraft.
The incident, according to the American ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, was “horrific news of Russian attacks against people.”
Russia continues to attack Ukrainian people while suffering battlefield setbacks, underscoring the fact that Ukraine’s struggle goes beyond just securing its freedom and sovereignty but also its very existence.
Pro-Kremlin officials, meanwhile, claimed that Ukrainian soldiers had targeted the convoy.
“The Kyiv dictatorship is attempting to wipe off those who desired to return to Russia’s secure area. Evgeny Balitsky, chairman of the pro-Russian civil-military administration of the Zaporizhzhia area, described it as the “targeted annihilation of the civilian population.”
a sizable hole caused by the missile hit close to automobiles owned by the victims of the incident. Imagery by Kateryna Klochko for AFP and Getty
At the expansive Orekhovo car market in the city, a Reuters news agency correspondent noticed victims on the ground or still inside of cars. They claimed that a crater in the earth was located next to two lines of trucks carrying blankets and bags.
The government of Ukraine said that the Ukrainian air force claimed to have shot down 5 of 7 Shahed-136 drones, sometimes known as “kamikaze drones,” over the areas of Mykolaiv and Odessa.
On Thursday night, shelling of Ukrainian-controlled areas persisted elsewhere. According to regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko, Iskander short-range ballistic missiles struck Dnipro, causing one fatality and five injuries.
In the past 24 hours, artillery and mortar fire have all been directed at Donetsk, Kharkiv, and the northern province of Sumy, according to Ukrainian officials.
16 rockets were fired by the occupants in just one morning in Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding territory. In a post to his Telegram channel, Zelenskyy. Only terrorists are capable of such atrocities; they should not be allowed in civilized societies.
Today, Zelenskyy will chair an emergency meeting of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
According to Darya Herasymchuk, the president’s adviser on children’s rights and rehabilitation, 3,781 children have been abandoned since the war began.
