Kyiv [Ukraine], September 11: 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 nongovernmental organization, while dozens of Russian drones targeted Kyiv and wounded at least one civilian.
The four volunteers from the Road to Relief group, 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 ChasivYar, the organization said on its Instagram page.
Road to Relief said that Anthony Ihnat of Canada died in the attack, while German medical volunteer Ruben Mawick and Swedish volunteer Johan Mathias Thyr were seriously wounded, it said.
Road to Relief added that it couldn't 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 Jose 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, Ukrainian officials reported that Russia launched "dozens" of drones at Kyiv and the surrounding region early in the morning, wounding at least five civilians.
Ukraine's air force later said it had brought down 26 out of a total of 33 drones. The head of Kyiv's military administration, SerhiiPopko, reported that debris from Iranian-made Shahed drones fell 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.
Kyiv Mayor VitaliKlitschko later confirmed that one civilian was wounded in the city's historic center and received help on the spot.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation