Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that three people were killed in a Russian attack on Red Cross vehicles in eastern Ukraine.
“Today, the occupiers attacked vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in the Donetsk region,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that three of its staff were killed when shelling hit a planned front-line aid distribution site in the area.
It did not say who was behind the firing.
“I strongly condemn the attack on Red Cross workers.”
ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement.
“It is unthinkable that the shelling would hit an aid distribution site,” he said.
“Our hearts are broken today as we mourn the loss of our colleagues and care for the injured,” he said.
“This tragedy has unleashed an outpouring of grief among those who have lost loved ones in the armed conflict.”
The attack took place in the village of Viroliubivka, a dozen kilometres from the Donetsk front line.
The ICCR said its team is preparing to distribute wood and charcoal bricks to vulnerable families to help them prepare for winter in case their vehicles get damaged.
The ICRC said two other staff were injured in the attack, and that aid distribution “has not yet begun, and no residents were affected by the explosion”.
The ICRC did not provide any details about the killed staff, but Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights Dmytro Lubinets said they were Ukrainian citizens.
Vehicles ‘clearly marked’
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which regularly says it only attacks military targets.
The ICRC highlighted that its teams “are regularly present in the Donetsk region, and our vehicles bear the Red Cross emblem clearly.”
It lamented that “the deaths of the three ICRC colleagues come at a time when the number of deaths of humanitarians around the world has increased sharply over the last two years.”
The Ukraine-based UN humanitarian mission said 50 workers were killed or injured in Ukraine in 2023, of which 11 died in the line of duty.
“This wave of attacks has intensified since the beginning of this year,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator Denis Brown said in a statement in February.
The ICRC in Thursday’s statement urgently called for “respect for international humanitarian law, including taking every possible precaution to ensure that persons engaged in humanitarian activities are not targeted or caught up in hostilities.”
ICRC spokesman Jason Straziuso told AFP that Thursday’s strike comes just days ahead of Spoljaric’s long-planned visit to Moscow – his second since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
She said she would meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other senior government officials on “important issues in the context of global conflicts, such as respect for international humanitarian law, prisoners of war, the fate of missing persons and the safety of humanitarian workers.”
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