Ukraine: Top humanitarian strongly condemns Russian attack on UN aid convoy

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Matthias Schmale, strongly condemned the attack.

“Today, an inter-agency convoy of four humanitarian trucks, clearly marked as belonging to the UN, carrying aid, came under attack by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation when delivering aid to Bilozerka Town in the Kherson Region,” he said in a statement.

‘Intensive artillery fire’

Aid workers from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) were on a mission to a community that had not received assistance for months.

“When the aid workers were on site, intensive artillery fire started, and later, during offloading, two clearly marked trucks of the World Food Programme (WFP) were targeted by first-person-view drones,” he said.

“Fortunately, the humanitarian workers were not injured, but two trucks were damaged and set on fire.”

Not a target

The convoy was carrying hygiene kits, medicines and shelter materials, OCHA’s top Ukraine official Andrea de Domenico said in a video posted on social media.

It showed one of the damaged WFP trucks at the side of a road, with flames and black smoke billowing from the top.

“It is super important to (remind) all the parties that humanitarian assistance needs to be facilitated and humanitarians need to be protected,” he said.

Mr. Schmale noted that “deliberately targeting humanitarians and humanitarian assets is a gross violation of international humanitarian law and might amount to a war crime.”

He added that “the Kherson Region has also seen an increase in drone attacks, harming civilians”, which must stop.

“All measures should be taken to protect civilians and humanitarian workers. International humanitarian law must be respected,” he said.

UN human rights monitors recently reported that at least 214 civilians were killed and almost 1,000 injured in Ukraine during September.

Nearly 70 per cent of casualties occurred near the frontline, with notably high numbers reported in the Donetsk and Kherson regions.