The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Saturday that at least 20 people were killed when the Russian army bombed this civilian convoy in late September, which was located in a “grey zone” between areas controlled by Russian troops and other areas controlled by Ukrainian forces Kupyansk in the east of the country. UKRAINIAN SECURITY SERVICE/VIA Portal
Ukrainian forces have made a macabre new discovery in the Kharkiv region (northeast), where they continue to push back their Russian enemy. At least 24 civilians were found shot dead in their car near Kupyansk, regional governor Oleh Synehoubov said on Saturday via telegram.
“A convoy of cars with dead civilians on board was spotted,” he said. The last reported preliminary census put the number of victims at “twenty-four people, including a pregnant woman and thirteen children.” According to Mr Synehoubov, “the inmates [l’armée russe] attacked civilians trying to escape the shelling.” “It is cruelty that has no justification,” he said. “Police and experts were on the scene,” and “an investigation is ongoing,” he said.
On Friday, a team from Agence France-Presse had seen at least 11 bodies of civilians killed in the same way on a road the Russians abandoned during their retreat from the region last week. The convoy of vehicles seen by AFP on Friday was on a road leading out of the village of Kyrylivka, 70 kilometers east of Kharkiv, when it was attacked. On the spot, the bodies still lay there, in or next to six vehicles. A minibus burned out completely, on the seats lay four bodies, one of which appeared to be that of a child.
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The site where the dozen civilians were found is in a place where fighting between Ukrainians and Russians recently took place when Kyiv forces launched a major counter-offensive in the region. Faced with significant military difficulties, the Russian soldiers retreated further east across the Oskil River, but the Ukrainians have since managed to cross it, a major achievement for Kyiv, whose army surrounds the Lyman Pocket.
A pro-Russian separatist official, speaking from Moscow on Thursday, accused the Ukrainian army of firing on a convoy of civilians in the Kharkiv region, killing 30 people, but gave no further details. Since the invasion began, Kyiv has denounced abuses by invading forces, allegations Russia has systematically denied.
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