Russian shelling kills three Red Cross workers in eastern Ukraine
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ICRC employees had brought fuel briquettes to residents for heating before winter and were unloading them when the attack happened.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KYIV – Russian shelling on Sept 12 killed three Ukrainians working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and wounded two others in a village in the front-line Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said.
“Another Russian war crime. Today, the occupier attacked vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in the Donetsk region,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.
The village of Viroliubivka came under shelling, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on the Telegram messenger app, reporting casualties.
“I condemn attacks on Red Cross personnel in the strongest terms. It’s unconscionable that shelling would hit an aid distribution site,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement.
The statement added that ICRC teams are regularly present in the Donetsk region, and their vehicles are marked with the Red Cross emblem.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office said on Telegram that ICRC employees had brought fuel briquettes to residents for heating before winter.
They were unloading the aid when the attack happened, it said.
Two employees were hospitalised, and one of them was in a serious condition, prosecutors added.
The Donetsk region, which Russian troops partially occupy, regularly comes under Russian shelling and air strikes.
Moscow denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure in its invasion of Ukraine, although thousands of people have been killed in its attacks. REUTERS
