Local authorities report that a Russian missile attack on a humanitarian convoy in south Ukraine resulted in at least 23 deaths and several injuries.
In the city of Zaporizhzhia, a sizable crater next to a line of automobiles bears witness to the attack’s brutality. Windscreens and windows have been broken.
The BBC observed six apparently civilians dead lying at the scene. Coats and luggage were all over the runway.
One shocked survivor told the BBC she heard at least three explosions.
Reacting to the attack in the early hours of Friday on the outskirts of the regional capital of the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was a “state-terrorist”.
He said Russia launched 16 rockets on the city and vowed to punish perpetrators for “every lost Ukrainian life”.
Meanwhile, a Russian-installed local official blamed Ukraine for the attack.
The convoy was hit as people were preparing to travel to the Russian-occupied part of the region to pick up their relatives and also deliver humanitarian aid.
Near the missile’s impact crater, the BBC spoke to Kateryna Holoborod, who sat on her suitcase in a state of shock.
‘We arrived in a line, to join a column going towards Kherson,” she said.
“We got out to see what number we had in the queue. Then the first rocket hit, behind the wagons.
“We dropped to the ground. Then the second one hit in the centre of the queue. There was glass everywhere, and people screaming and running. I don’t remember much.
“It was very scary. I then got up to see what happened, and help the injured. I tried to help an injured young man when the third explosion happened.”
The attack comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for a signing ceremony in Moscow to annex Zaporizhzhia along with Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson regions.
The move follows self-styled referendums in the eastern and southern regions, which have been condemned by Ukraine and the West as a sham.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, and Moscow currently controls the majority of the Zaporizhzhia region, including Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant there – but not the regional capital.
Moscow-installed regional official Vladimir Rogov blamed “Ukrainian militants” for the Zaporizhzhia attack, Russian state-run media reported.
In a separate development, one person was killed and five injured in overnight Russian strikes by Iskander missiles on the central city of Dnipro, about 70km (43 miles) north of Zaporizhzhia, local officials said.
They said a transport company was targeted, and as many as 52 buses were burnt and another 98 damaged.
Several high-rise buildings, offices and a shop were also hit.