Russian cross-border raid kills two in Ukraine, say officials
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Ukrainian authorities on Jan 27 renewed their appeal for residents to leave border areas.
PHOTO: AFP
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KYIV - A Russian “reconnaissance and sabotage group” shot dead two people in a Ukrainian village on Jan 27 during a cross-border incursion, local officials said.
The attack happened in Ukraine’s Sumy region inside a 5km buffer zone along the border with Russia – an area that Kyiv had asked residents to evacuate.
“This morning, an enemy reconnaissance and sabotage group brutally and cynically shot a brother and sister,” the Sumy regional administration said, in a statement.
The incident happened in the village of Andriivka, 4km from the border with Russia’s western Kursk region, it added.
In a separate statement, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said the victims were a 54-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman who were killed while driving in an SUV. It published a photo of what it said was the vehicle showing blown-out front and back windows.
Though infrequent, such attacks by guerilla-style fighters have been recorded throughout the nearly two-year war.
Russian authorities have also accused Ukrainian groups of armed raids into towns and villages on its side of the border, killing civilians.
Ukrainian authorities on Jan 27 renewed their appeal for residents to leave border areas.
“Russian terrorists continue to kill civilians. By evacuating from dangerous areas, you will save your life,” Sumy Governor Volodymyr Artyukh said.
At least three other civilians were killed in Russian attacks in the east and south of the country, local officials said on Jan 27.
In Beryslav, which sits on the Dnipro river in the southern Kherson region, explosives dropped from a drone killed one person, the governor said.
And two were killed by Russian artillery shelling in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s national police said.
Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin also said Jan 27 the bodies of five people killed in a Russian bomb attack on the village of New York two weeks ago had been pulled from the rubble.
There was no comment from Moscow, which has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, despite widespread evidence of attacks on residential areas and the United Nations saying at least 10,000 civilians – likely many more – have been killed since Russia invaded.
Moscow claims to have annexed both the Kherson and Donetsk regions, even though its forces do not have full control over either of them. AFP
