One of the deadliest Russian bombings in Ukraine since the war began on February 24. “Today, under the rubble in Desna, there are 87 victims. 87 corpses, victims who were killed,” said Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday during his videoconference speech at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos (Switzerland).
On May 17, a Russian strike targeted this village of Desna which houses a large military training camp and is located about sixty kilometers north of kyiv, in the Cherniguiv region. A report given that day by the local emergency services had reported eight dead and twelve wounded. It was an unusual attack in this region close to the capital and resumed several weeks earlier by Ukrainian soldiers after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the kyiv region in the last days of March.
“These people will not know the future of Ukraine,” Volodymyr Zelensky added of the victims. Ukraine “is paying dearly for freedom and independence and for this fight”, he added.