About 30 people were killed and 88 injured on Friday in a Russian attack on civilians in southern Ukraine, according to police in Zaporizhzhia, a town located in an area partly occupied by Russian forces.
The Ukrainian police described the attack as a war crime. However, Russia has denied responsibility for it, blaming Ukraine.
Hundreds of Ukrainian citizens had lined up in their cars to enter Russian-occupied territory, where they had planned to pick up relatives, according to Ukrainian officials.
A three-year-old girl is reported to be among the injured. Andriy Yermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, decried the attack as having been committed by a "terrorist state."
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According to police Colonel Sergey Ujryumov, head of the explosive disposal unit of the Zaporizhzhia police department, Russian-made S-300 missiles were used in the attack. The police colonel stated that Russian forces had the coordinates of the convoy, meaning that the attack was "perfectly deliberate."
Pro-Russian forces have been quick to blame Ukraine in turn. Head of the collaborationist government in Zaporizhzhia, Vladimir Rogov, blamed Ukraine of orchestrating an attack against its own people.
