Russian airstrike on east Ukraine village kills 24 pensioners. Image credit: BBC
(The Post News)- 24 elderly people have been killed and 19 others injured in a Russian air strike on the village of Yarova in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, local officials confirmed on Tuesday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the victims were “ordinary civilians” who had gathered to collect their pensions when the attack struck. “There are no words to describe the cruelty of Russia’s strikes,” he said in a video posted on social media.
Zelensky reported that the world must not remain silent. “We expect a clear response from our partners in the US, Europe, and the G20,” he stated.
The regional governor, Vadym Filashkin, said emergency services were still working at the scene. “Rescuers are doing everything possible to save lives. I urge residents to evacuate to safer regions,” he added.
The head of the local administration in nearby Lyman, Oleksandr Zhuravlyov, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne that the strike happened at around 10:40 local time (07:40 GMT) as pensions were being handed out. “Most of the victims are elderly people,” Zhuravlyov said.
He added that officials were now considering how to continue payments under safer conditions, “Because the front line is less than 10km away, we will move these payments so people can receive their pensions in safer places.”
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko later confirmed that Russia had “dropped a guided air bomb” on Yarova. Pictures from the scene showed a badly damaged Ukrposhta postal service vehicle, which had been used to distribute pensions. The head of Ukrposhta said the vehicle had been parked under trees as a precaution, but a local postal official was wounded in the blast. “Maybe someone gave away the co-ordinates,” he speculated.
Yarova lies just north of Slovyansk, one of the key cities in Donetsk, and sits along a strategic railway line between Lyman and Izium. It is also about 6km (3.7 miles) from Novoselivka, where Russian forces are advancing.
Russia has not yet commented on the strike.
The attack comes just days after Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Kyiv since the start of the war, targeting government buildings in what Zelensky condemned as a “ruthless” attempt to prolong the conflict.
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