Skip to main content
Latest news
Thumbnail

Civilians Killed in Ukraine Convoy Attack

(Reuters) - A missile attack on a convoy of cars in southern Ukraine killed a number of civilians on Friday, hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to proclaim Moscow's rule over lands it has seized in his invasion.

The convoy was assembling in a car park near Zaporizhzhia city to carry people and supplies into Russian-held territory in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia province. The regional capital is still controlled by Ukraine.

A missile had gouged a crater in the ground near two lines of vehicles. The impact had thrown chunks of dirt ino the air and sprayed the vehicles with shrapnel. The windows of the vehicles - mostly cars and three vans, were blown out. Reuters saw around a dozen bodies, four of them in cars.

"So far, 23 dead and 28 wounded. All civilians," Zaporizhzhia regional governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on Telegram.

The vehicles were packed with the occupants’ belongings, blankets and suitcases. A body leaned from the driver's seat into the passenger seat of a yellow car, his left hand still clutching the steering wheel.

The attack took place hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to stage a ceremony in an ornate Kremlin hall to proclaim Russia's rule over around 15% of Ukraine, the biggest annexation in Europe since Hitler. It would be followed by a celebratory pop concert outside the Kremlin walls on Red Square.

Russia's annexation of the Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia has been condemned in the West and beyond. U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called it was a "dangerous escalation" and a violation of the United Nations charter.

"It can still be stopped. But to stop it we have to stop that person in Russia who wants war more than life. Your lives, citizens of Russia," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Thursday evening address.

The Russian annexation, held after what the West denounced as phoney referndums at gunpoint in occupied territory, followed weeks of defeats for Moscow's forces on the battlefield in which they were routed from their positions in Ukraine's northeast.

Putin has ordered the call-up up of hundreds of thousands of Russian reservists, a move that prompted tens of thousands of Russian men to flee over borders to escape being shipped off to war.

Military experts said Russia could soon be facing one of its biggest defeats of the war so far, with thousands of troops trapped in Lyman, the last major Russian stronghold in the north of Donetsk province. The town's fall would pave the way for Ukraine to recapture swathes of land Russia is now claiming.

Kyiv has so far kept silent about the situation there, but Russian military bloggers have described the Russian force as all but surrounded, with advancing Ukrainians having cut off the last possible routes of escape.

"Possible that the pocket collapses tonight or tomorrow, which would overshadow the annexation announcement," tweeted Rob Lee, an expert on the Russian military and senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Civilians Killed in Ukraine Convoy Attack

A missile had gouged a crater in the ground near two lines of vehicles. The impact had thrown chunks of dirt ino the air and sprayed the vehicles with shrapnel.

Thumbnail

(Reuters) - A missile attack on a convoy of cars in southern Ukraine killed a number of civilians on Friday, hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to proclaim Moscow's rule over lands it has seized in his invasion.

The convoy was assembling in a car park near Zaporizhzhia city to carry people and supplies into Russian-held territory in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia province. The regional capital is still controlled by Ukraine.

A missile had gouged a crater in the ground near two lines of vehicles. The impact had thrown chunks of dirt ino the air and sprayed the vehicles with shrapnel. The windows of the vehicles - mostly cars and three vans, were blown out. Reuters saw around a dozen bodies, four of them in cars.

"So far, 23 dead and 28 wounded. All civilians," Zaporizhzhia regional governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on Telegram.

The vehicles were packed with the occupants’ belongings, blankets and suitcases. A body leaned from the driver's seat into the passenger seat of a yellow car, his left hand still clutching the steering wheel.

The attack took place hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to stage a ceremony in an ornate Kremlin hall to proclaim Russia's rule over around 15% of Ukraine, the biggest annexation in Europe since Hitler. It would be followed by a celebratory pop concert outside the Kremlin walls on Red Square.

Russia's annexation of the Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia has been condemned in the West and beyond. U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called it was a "dangerous escalation" and a violation of the United Nations charter.

"It can still be stopped. But to stop it we have to stop that person in Russia who wants war more than life. Your lives, citizens of Russia," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a Thursday evening address.

The Russian annexation, held after what the West denounced as phoney referndums at gunpoint in occupied territory, followed weeks of defeats for Moscow's forces on the battlefield in which they were routed from their positions in Ukraine's northeast.

Putin has ordered the call-up up of hundreds of thousands of Russian reservists, a move that prompted tens of thousands of Russian men to flee over borders to escape being shipped off to war.

Military experts said Russia could soon be facing one of its biggest defeats of the war so far, with thousands of troops trapped in Lyman, the last major Russian stronghold in the north of Donetsk province. The town's fall would pave the way for Ukraine to recapture swathes of land Russia is now claiming.

Kyiv has so far kept silent about the situation there, but Russian military bloggers have described the Russian force as all but surrounded, with advancing Ukrainians having cut off the last possible routes of escape.

"Possible that the pocket collapses tonight or tomorrow, which would overshadow the annexation announcement," tweeted Rob Lee, an expert on the Russian military and senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Share this post

Comment this post