Kremlin condemns Ukrainian ‘terrorist attack’ targeting Belarusian children
The Kremlin has condemned as terrorism a Ukrainian drone strike on a bus carrying a Belarusian youth sports team. One woman was killed and several passengers wounded, including children, in the attack in Russia’s Bryansk Region on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed Health Minister Mikhail Murashko to ensure that all those injured “in the terrorist attack by the Kiev regime” receive the necessary medical assistance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The attack on the bus, which was carrying 44 people, 28 of them children, was first reported by Bryansk Region’s acting governor, Egor Kovalchuk. Belarusian Deputy Health Minister Aleksandr Khodzhaev later said eight people, including six children, had been hospitalized.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also condemned the strike, accusing Kiev of targeting civilians and saying it was “hunting” children. She claimed Kiev puts minors in danger “without hesitation” and compared the latest case with a drone raid on a school dormitory in Starobelsk, which killed 21 people last month.
Commenting on the incident, Belarusian lawmaker Oleg Gaidukevich, deputy chairman of the parliament’s international affairs committee, said the attack was part of an increasing number of “extremist” actions by the Ukrainian military and regime.
“Both Russia and Belarus are capable of fighting terrorism and extremism. They... will always respond firmly and in accordance with the law,” he wrote on Telegram.
Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, said the attack was a war crime under international humanitarian law, noting that “defenseless people... children” had been targeted.
Criminal investigations into the incident have been opened in both Russia and Belarus, with the authorities treating the attack as an act of terrorism.
