De manera brutal, Putin lanza misiles a civiles desarmados en un convoy de ayuda humanitaria para sacar civiles de las regiones invadidas por Putin.Dozens feared dead after Russian strike on civilian convoy near Zaporizhzhia
Attack comes as Vladimir Putin prepares to publicly sign annexation orders for four Ukrainian regions
Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
In this image released by the Police Press Service, the view from a drone shows the site of a Russian rocket attack in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens, an official said Friday, just hours before Moscow planned to annex more of Ukraine in an escalation of the seven-month war. (Ukrainian Police Press Office via AP)
A civilian convoy of cars heading to pick up relatives trying to flee Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine has been hit by Moscow’s forces near the city of Zaporizhzhia, with initial reports saying dozens of people were killed and injured. That casualty figure could not immediately be confirmed.
Footage posted on social media showed a horrific scene with dead and injured people lying on a road on the south-eastern outskirts of the city. In one video, taken from inside a nearby building, a woman can be heard sobbing, saying repeatedly: “Dead people are lying there.”
At least one crater was visible in other images showing cars that had taken the full force of the blast.
The attack on the convoy on Friday morning came amid a feared Russian escalation in its war in Ukraine, as the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, prepared to publicly sign annexation orders for four regions, which some fear will lead to an increase in attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Meanwhile, a large number of Russian forces in the strategic Donbas town of Lyman were reported to have been encircled in the latest setback for Putin.
The governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, said in a statement: “The enemy launched an attack on a civilian convoy and the outskirts of the city. People were standing in line to leave for the occupied territory to pick up their relatives and to deliver aid. There are dead and wounded. Emergency services are at the site.
“At the moment there are 23 dead and 28 wounded, all civilians,” he added. Those figures were later updated to 25 dead and more than 50 injured.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, said: “The terror continues. The killings continue. Sixteen missiles were launched using S-300 air defence.”
Confirming the number of dead, he said four missiles hit near a sprawling car parts market where the convoy had gathered.
“There was a convoy of cars with civilians on their way to the temporarily occupied territory to pick up their relatives.”
At the site of the blast, in a wooded area just outside the city, police and military were clearing the scene after discovering another unexploded munition, with the dead and wounded removed to nearby hospitals.
Even five hours after the attack it remained a scene of utter carnage with broken bodies spread around the site. Many, it appears, had been standing outside of their vehicles, not far from a registration point with white tents and a desk, when the missile flew in exploding about 10 metres from the cars and leaving a huge crater.
In one car, a man was still sat slumped dead with one hand gripping his steering wheel, the windows blown out. Another body was slumped on its knees covered with a blanket next to the luggage they were pulling a few metres away.
According to locals, 60 cars had gathered on a road in two lines after registering for a convoy that was due to take people back into the Russian-occupied territories in the south, some planning to return to homes in places such as Mariupol, others planning to fetch relatives and bring them to government-occupied territory for fear that Russia would prevent people from leaving following Friday’s annexation ceremony.
Ukrainian police examine a minivan that was hit in a Russian strike on a convoy heading for Kremlin occupied territory.
Ukrainian police examine a minivan that was hit in a Russian strike on a convoy heading for Kremlin occupied territory. Photograph: Peter Beaumont/The Guardian
Standing on the road, Dalina Yakushava, 48, had arrived after the explosion to see if she could register for a convoy.
“This is where people are told to come and register by the authorities to join a convoy. You register online but I came to make sure my permission had been received. I live in Mariupol. We just drove our daughter to Poland but we need to go back because my parents are there. It’s terrible but it is our home.
“There were a lot of cars waiting to leave this morning because no one has been able to go into the occupied areas for the past week.”
Volodmyr Marchuk, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, said the site was “a logistic hub to allow people go into the temporarily Russian occupied territories. The Russians only accept 150 cars a day so that’s why we created a programme, where people could come register and get their number in line.
“So at 7.15 in the morning there were a large number of cars waiting for the turn to cross, mostly people who want to go to and drop off aid to relatives and maybe pick up people who want to leaver on the way back.
“They hit that queue with an S-300 missile. There’s no doubt it is a deliberate war crime. They always say they are aiming at a military object and hit something else. But there are no military objects near that site. That’s why there’s no doubt that’s it’s a terrorist act.”
In the hours before the attack, Russia launched strikes on several cities, including the centre of the nearby city of Dnipro.
Putin was preparing to hold a ceremony on Friday for the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, while his Ukrainian counterpart said the Russian president would have to be stopped if Moscow was to avoid the most damaging consequences of the war.
25 muertos y mas de 50 heridos es el saldo del burtal ataque a civiles, perpetrado por Putin.
Es un crimen que esta siendo repudiado por todas las naciones en este momento.
