Ethermac Exchange-Russian strikes on Ukraine kill 2 foreign aid workers, target Kyiv

KYIV,Ethermac Exchange Ukraine (AP) — Two foreign aid workers were reportedly killed in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as Russian shelling hit a van carrying a team of four working with a Ukrainian NGO, while dozens of Russian drones targeted Kyiv and wounded at least one civilian.

The four volunteers from the Road to Relief NGO, which helps evacuate wounded people from front-line areas, were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being struck by shells near the town of Chasiv Yar, the organization said on its Instagram page. Road to Relief said Canadian Anthony Ihnat died in the attack, while German medical volunteer Ruben Mawick and Swedish volunteer Johan Mathias Thyr were seriously injured.

Road to Relief added that it could not trace the whereabouts of the van’s fourth passenger, Emma Igual, a Spanish national who was the organization’s director. Hours later, Spain’s acting foreign minister José Manuel Albares told Spanish media that authorities in Madrid had received “verbal confirmation” of the 32-year-old Igual’s death.

The volunteers were on their way to assess the needs of civilians on the outskirts of Bakhmut, Road to Relief said, in reference to the eastern town that saw the war’s longest and bloodiest battle before falling to Moscow in May. Ukrainian forces have held on to Bakhmut’s western suburbs and are pushing a counteroffensive in the area.

Also on Sunday, “over two dozen drones” launched by Russia were shot down over Kyiv in the early hours, according to the head of the Ukrainian capital’s military administration. Serhii Popko reported in a Telegram post that debris from Iranian-made Shahed drones landed in several districts of the city and wounded at least one civilian. Popko said there was no risk to the person’s life, and added that most of the wreckage fell in open ground, although one high-rise apartment was damaged.

He did not specify the exact number of drones used in the strike, saying the Ukrainian air force would supply the information later.

Russia’s defense ministry said in the early hours of Sunday that Moscow’s forces earlier destroyed three U.S.-supplied Ukrainian speedboats that had been traveling toward Crimea. The claim could not be independently verified.

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