Zelenskyy responds to alleged strike on bus in Bryansk Oblast: A Russian provocation
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that international experts have already concluded that Ukraine was not involved in the alleged attack on a bus carrying Belarusian citizens in Russia's Bryansk Oblast.
Source: Zelenskyy at a joint press conference with Honduran President Nasry Asfura in Kyiv on Friday 19 June, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine
Details: Zelenskyy added that the incident was a provocation by the Russian side aimed at drawing the Belarusian people into the war against Ukraine.
Quote: "As for the drone strike... Well, everyone – international experts, and it seems to me that even the Russians, let's say unofficially – have acknowledged that this strike was not ours.
How is it connected? Very simply. The Russians will carry out many different provocations in order to drag the Belarusian people into this war. This is one such provocation."
Background:
- Yegor Kovalchuk, acting governor of Bryansk Oblast, claimed on 17 June that a Ukrainian drone had attacked a bus carrying a children's football team from Belarus. He said the team from Homiel was travelling to Russia's Gelendzhik for a holiday.
- The governor claimed that a Belarusian woman accompanying the team had been killed in the strike. Six other people were supposedly injured, including four children.
- Ukraine has officially denied the allegations of a "Ukrainian drone attack".
- Following reports about the attack on the bus carrying Belarusian children, Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets urgently contacted the Belarusian side.
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