UN says Russia struck aid convoy in southern Ukraine

KIEV

Russian forces struck a U.N. aid convoy in the partially-occupied southern Kherson region of Ukraine on Tuesday, Kiev and the U.N. said, adding there were no casualties in the attack.

The U.N. said its convoy of four vehicles came under attack from Russian drones and artillery while delivering aid to the frontline town of Bilozerka.

"An inter-agency convoy of four humanitarian trucks, clearly marked as belonging to the U.N., carrying aid, came under attack by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," its statement said.

"Such attacks are utterly unacceptable. Aid workers are protected by international humanitarian law and should never be attacked," said the U.N.'s Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Matthias Schmale.

He added that two World Food Programme trucks were damaged in the strike, while local authorities said the remaining two were unscathed.

The U.N.'s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, told AFP the convoy was carrying 800 individual packages "containing essential items for older persons, women, and girls".

"The area has a very high proportion of older people, many of whom are unable to relocate due to drones and shelling and rely on humanitarian assistance for survival," Jacqueline Mahon, UNFPA Representative to Ukraine, told AFP.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga called the strike "another brutal violation of international law, proving Russia's utter disregard for civilian lives and its international obligations."

There was no immediate reaction from Moscow.

A senior official in the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, published a photo showing a white truck marked with the World Food Programme emblem on fire with plumes of black smoke rising above it.

Ukrainian authorities and aid groups have said throughout the nearly four-year Russian invasion that their staff and facilities have come under bombardments from Moscow's forces.

The Kherson region, which Russia claimed to have annexed in 2022, is still partially controlled by Russian forces, who launch daily attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities from the southern banks of the Dnipro river.

Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that Russian forces killed two civilians with drones in Kherson and also in Nikopol, in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region.