KYIV –  A Russian attack on a Red Cross vehicle in eastern Ukraine has killed three aid workers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed that three of its staff were killed and two were wounded on Thursday when shelling hit the site of a planned aid distribution in the Donetsk region.

“I condemn attacks on Red Cross personnel in the strongest terms. It’s unconscionable that shelling would hit an aid distribution site,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement, adding: “Our hearts are broken today as we mourn the loss of our colleagues and care for the injured.” All three were Ukrainian citizens, the country’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said. Zelenskyy called the incident “another Russian war crime”.

There was no immediate comment from Russia, which routinely says it hits only military targets. ICRC vehicles were struck while staff prepared to distribute wood and coal briquettes to vulnerable households in Viroliubivka village before winter, the organisation said in a statement, adding that because aid distribution had yet to begin, no residents were affected. “Our vehicles are clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem,” the statement said. The UN humanitarian mission to Ukraine said 50 aid workers were killed or injured in Ukraine in 2023, including 11 killed in the line of duty.

Thursday’s strike came just days before Spoljaric is due to carry out a long planned visit to Moscow – her second since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, ICRC spokesman Jason Straziuso told the AFP news agency. She is due to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior government officials to discuss “critical issues in conflicts globally, such as the respect of international humanitarian law, prisoners of war, the fate of the missing and protections for humanitarian workers,” he said. (Al Jazeera)

Photo: A Red Cross truck burns after it was shelled in the village of Viroliubivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. (AP)