Eight killed after drone hits bus in Russia-controlled part of Ukraine

BBC:

Eight people have been killed and 10 others injured after a drone hit a passenger bus travelling through a Russia-controlled part of Ukraine, Russian state media have said.

Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-installed leader of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, said the bus was struck in the early hours of Wednesday as it was travelling between Moscow and Simferopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Black smoke could also be seen rising over St Petersburg on Wednesday morning, with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky confirming the city’s oil terminal had been hit.

The attack comes as the city hosts the annual International Economic Forum, an event designed to showcase Russia to the world.

The strikes come a day after a massive Russian assault on cities across Ukraine killed at least 22 people, including several women and children.

Russian investigators said they had opened a criminal case into what they described as a “terrorist attack” on civilians.

Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee, said authorities were working to establish the identities of those responsible for the strike.

Fifty-three people had been registered to travel on the bus, Reuters reports, however, none of the victims’ identities have been released yet.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian government’s centre for combating disinformation, has talked about a “parallel reality” created by Russian state propaganda, while not explicitly denying claims that the strike took place.

“Russia attacks civilians with drones all the time… of course, when everyone is talking about this, when there is evidence of such actions by the Russians, they use their main propaganda tool: creating a parallel reality,” he told the BBC.

“Against this background of attacks on our civilians, they come up with stories in which Ukraine acts just like Russia. This is done to justify their own terror as a response to our actions.”

The BBC has approached the Ukrainian military for comment.