Ukraine says 24 lifeless after assault on civilian convoy

Ukraine on Saturday accused Russian forces of gunning down 24 civilians together with kids in an assault on a highway convoy close to the lately recaptured city of Kupiansk.

On Friday, Ukrainian troops had proven AFP reporters a bunch of automobiles riddled with bullet holes and a number of other corpses in civilian garments exterior the village of Kyrylivka, a brief distance east of Kupiansk.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov put the preliminary dying toll at 24 together with, he mentioned, a pregnant lady and 13 kids, alleging: “Russians fired on the civilians at close range.”

The Kharkiv area prosecutor’s workplace mentioned: “On September 30 prosecutors, investigators of the Security Service and the police discovered a convoy of seven cars that had been shot.

“The automobile queue was shot by the Russian military on September 25, when civilians had been making an attempt to evacuate,” the statement alleged.

“Two vehicles have burnt utterly with kids and their mother and father inside — they burnt alive,” it said.

Ukrainian officials have launched an investigation and allege that the Russian forces that were driven out of Kyrylivka last Sunday were behind the war’s latest apparent massacre.

“The occupiers are being defeated on the battlefield and desperately reply by killing civilians,” said the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk.

“We will discover everybody and maintain them accountable for dedicated atrocities,” he said. “Several individuals had managed to flee from Hell. Now they’re testifying to the investigators.”

Governor Synegubov’s spokeswoman told AFP the site of the killings was still unsafe for investigators, being a short distance from the still active frontline between Ukrainian and Russian forces.

On Friday, AFP reporters counted the bodies of at least 11 civilians in the wrecked cars, some burned beyond recognition.

Ukrainian troops operating nearby said they had found the dead on an exposed section of road alongside a rail track, as defeated Russian forces retreated from the area.

Bullet holes

On Friday the bodies remained where they had died in and around the vehicles on a road running southeast from Kyrylivka 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of Kharkiv, in the direction of the Russian retreat.

A small van or minibus was completely burnt out, with the carbonised remains of four people within. At least one of these corpses appeared small enough to have been a child.

“The automobiles had been shifting all collectively as a civilian convoy. We can see that there’s virtually no distance between the automobiles,” said “Filya”, a Ukrainian soldier who guided AFP to the scene.

“And clearly they had been attacked by gunfire as a result of you may see the bullet holes … One automobile was set on fireplace and it is unattainable to recognise the individuals with out an professional,” he mentioned.

Russia’s February invasion allowed Moscow to grab a swathe of northern and jap Ukraine, however this month a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive within the Kharkiv area has pushed them again.

Russian occupations forces have been accused of brutalising and murdering civilians a number of instances through the seven-month-old struggle, and have hit cities with lethal missile strikes.

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