Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces had attacked a Red Cross vehicle in eastern Ukraine, killing three aid workers.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed that three staff members were killed and two were wounded when a planned aid distribution site in the Donetsk region was shelled on Thursday.
“I strongly condemn the attack on Red Cross workers. Shelling an aid distribution site is unacceptable,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement, adding: “Our hearts are broken as we mourn the loss of our colleagues and care for the wounded.”
Dmytro Rubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said all three were Ukrainian nationals.
President Zelensky called the incident “another Russian war crime.”
Russia has always maintained its attacks were aimed only at military targets and there was no immediate comment.
The ICRC vehicle was attacked as it was preparing to distribute firewood and charcoal briquettes to needy families in the village of Viroliuviivka ahead of winter, the organisation said in a statement, adding that residents were not harmed as distribution of aid had not yet begun.
“Our vehicles are clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem,” the statement said.
The UN Humanitarian Mission to Ukraine said 50 aid workers were killed or injured in Ukraine in 2023, 11 of whom died in the line of duty.
Thursday’s attack came just days before a long-planned visit by Ambassador Spoljaric to Moscow, his second visit since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, ICRC spokesman Jason Stragiuso told AFP.
She will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior government officials to discuss “key issues in global conflicts, including compliance with international humanitarian law, the fate of prisoners of war and missing persons, and the protection of humanitarian workers,” he said.
Three of our staff in Ukraine were killed and two more injured today when an aid distribution site on the front line in the Donetsk region came under heavy shelling.
Our hearts are broken as we mourn this loss and care for those injured. https://t.co/Bw81vXCG6n pic.twitter.com/z7OTnjLQYc
— ICRC Ukraine (@ICRC_ua) September 12, 2024
The deadly shelling came as Moscow stepped up pressure on the battlefield of Donetsk, where the fighting is currently fiercest.
“The Russians have cut off the water supply to Pokrovsk,” city officials said in a Telegram post.
The main logistics hub is about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the front line, making it a prime target for Russian forces.
Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadim Filashkin on Wednesday accused Russia of cutting off gas supplies to the city, where some 28,000 people remain despite requests to evacuate.
Secretary of State Blinken concludes European tour
Russian artillery fire on Thursday killed two people and wounded seven in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on its Telegram app that emergency services were at the scene after Russian forces attacked the village of Borova and Moscow’s forces shelled it again, with three rescue workers among the injured.
Zelensky also said a cargo ship loaded with wheat bound for Egypt was hit by a Russian missile in the Black Sea shortly after leaving Ukrainian waters.
Russia has stepped up air strikes on Ukraine in recent weeks amid a Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region of western Russia, and President Zelenskiy confirmed on Thursday that Moscow’s forces were launching a counterattack.
Russia claims to have recaptured large swaths of territory on the border with Ukraine.
The strikes came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up in Poland a three-nation European tour focused on Ukraine, during which Ukrainian officials repeatedly called for allowing the use of Western-supplied long-range weapons to attack targets inside Russia.
Blinken was travelling to Warsaw after spending a day in Kiev with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, where the two ministers pledged to convey Ukraine’s request to world leaders.
“We will continue to do exactly what we have always done: adjust and adapt as needed, including using the tools available to Ukraine to effectively defend itself against Russian aggression,” Blinken said at a news conference in Warsaw on Thursday.
