Russian officials said on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone hit a bus carrying a children’s soccer team from Belarus in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, as civilian casualties continue to rise in both Ukraine and Russia.
For its part, the Ukrainian military denied responsibility, claiming that it wasn’t carrying out drone attacks in Bryansk at the time. Yegor Kovalchuk, the acting governor of Bryansk, called the attack a “completely deliberate strike on civilian transport on a busy highway.”
At least one woman was killed in the attack, and six people, including four children, were wounded. A Belarusian law enforcement official told RT that the woman was the wife of the team’s coach.
Russia has recently dramatically ramped up its missile and drone bombardments of Ukraine, which it says is a response to drone attacks on civilians in Russia and Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, including a May 22 Ukrainian drone attack that hit a college in Starobelsk in the Luhansk Oblast and killed 21 students.
On Tuesday night, Ukrainian officials said that Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine killed at least four people and set homes and a shopping center on fire. Earlier this week, a heavy Russian bombardment in Kyiv and other cities killed at least 11 civilians.
Ukraine is known to use intelligence from the US and NATO for its long-range drone attacks inside Russia, and the US has helped build up Ukraine’s drone industry, meaning that such attacks always risk a potential escalation between Russia and NATO.
