At least 20 people have died after Russian forces shelled a civilian evacuation convoy in the north-east of Ukraine, a senior official said.
Bombardments have intensified as Moscow illegally annexed a swath of Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of the war.
Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov said the convoy was struck in the Kupiansy district on Saturday, calling the attack on people who were trying to flee the area to avoid being shelled “сruelty that can’t be justified”.
Russian forces have not acknowledged or commented on the attack, apparently the second in two days to hit a humanitarian convoy.
Russian troops have retreated from much of the Kharkiv region after a successful Ukrainian counter-offensive last month but continued to shell the area.
The attack comes at a pivotal moment in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
Facing a Ukrainian counter-offensive, Mr Putin this week heightened threats of nuclear force and used his most aggressive, anti-Western rhetoric to date.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his military vowed to keep fighting to liberate the annexed regions and other Russian-occupied areas.
Ukrainian officials said on Saturday their forces had surrounded thousands of Russian soldiers holding the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which is located in one of the four incorporated areas.
Mr Zelensky formally applied on Friday for Ukraine to join Nato, increasing pressure on Western allies to help defend the country.
Also on Saturday, Ukraine’s nuclear power provider said Russian forces blindfolded and detained the head of Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
Soldiers seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ihor Murashov, at about 4pm on Friday, Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel