At least 24 civilians, including 13 children, were found shot dead in their cars in northeastern Ukraine, near Kupyansk, regional governor Oleg Synegoubov announced on Saturday (October 1st). According to him, “the occupants [russes] attacked these civilians who were trying to escape the bombardments”. “It’s cruelty that has no justification”he denounced. “Police and experts went to the scene” and “An investigation is underway”.
On Friday, an AFP team had seen at least 11 bodies of civilians at this location, a road abandoned by the Russians in their withdrawal from the region last week. On the spot, the corpses were still there, inside or next to six vehicles. A minibus was completely burned, with four bodies inside, one of which appeared to be that of a child, lying on the seats.
The discovery was made at a location where fighting between Ukrainians and Russians has recently taken place, with Kyiv forces waging a major counter-offensive in the area. A pro-Russian separatist official, for his part, accused Thursday from Moscow the Ukrainian army of having fired on a convoy of civilians in the Kharkiv region, killing thirty people, without however providing more details.