Twenty dead in attack on Ukrainians collecting pensions, Zelensky says

 Twenty dead in attack on Ukrainians collecting pensions, Zelensky says!

At least 21 people have been killed in a Russian air strike on a village in eastern Ukraine, local Ukrainian officials say.

The victims were ordinary people collecting their pensions in the Donetsk settlement of Yarova, said President Volodymr Zelensky. Vadym Filashkin, the leader of the Donetsk region, said that emergency services were on the scene and that as many people were injured as were killed. Yarova is to the north of Sloviansk, one of the big cities in the region, and not far from the front line as Russian forces advance slowly in the east.

If confirmed, the death toll would be among the heaviest attacks on Ukrainian civilians in recent weeks, 42 months into Russia's full-scale invasion.,

At least 23 people were killed in overnight air strikes on Ukraine's capital Kyiv at the end of August.

 At the weekend Russia launched its biggest air assault of the war on Kyiv so far, hitting the main government building in the capital, in what Zelensky said was a "ruthless" attack aimed at prolonging the war.           

                     
Posting graphic footage of the attack on Yarova online, Zelensky said there were "no words" to describe the latest Russian strikes. The military of Russia did not respond right away. Vadym Filashkin said the attack took place at 12:30 local time on Tuesday, as pensions were being handed out. He shared a picture from the scene that appeared to show a severely damaged vehicle used to distribute pensions by the Ukrainian postal service. In Donetsk, Yarova is located between Lyman and Izium on a crucial railway line. Additionally, it is only 3.7 miles (6.4 kilometers) away from the following village, Novoselivka, where Russian forces are advancing on the outskirts. Ukraine's state emergency service said another three people had died in earlier Russian shelling of settlements in Donetsk.

 

"The world must not remain silent," Zelensky said, calling for a response from both the US, Europe and the G20 group of nations.