The strike on a bus carrying young Belarussian footballers is just the latest Ukrainian atrocity, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said
Published 17 Jun, 2026 11:18
| Updated 17 Jun, 2026 12:20
FILE PHOTO: The building of Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. © Sputnik / Natalia Seliverstova
Ukraine is deliberately hunting civilians, including children, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
Zakharova was responding to a Ukrainian drone strike in Russia’s Bryansk Region which targeted a bus carrying a children’s soccer team from Belarus. The attack killed an adult woman who was accompanying the underage passengers and injured six others, including four children, according to local governor Egor Kovalchuk. There were 44 people, including 28 children, on the bus which was targeted.
“This is yet another terrorist attack by the Kiev regime, which is hunting civilians, especially children,” the spokeswoman stressed.
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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.
