The United Nations refugee agency on Friday said it had lost $1 million (€860,000) worth of aid when a Russian missile struck one of its warehouses in Dnipro in eastern Ukraine earlier this week.
The warehouse, which contained emergency shelter materials, including sleeping mats and hygiene kits, was destroyed on Wednesday, and two people were killed, Bernadette Castel-Hollingworth, the UNCHR Representative in Kyiv, said via video link from Poland.
The supplies were destined to be distributed to displaced and war-affected people in frontline areas in Ukraine, and their destruction deprives people of critical assistance at a time of significant need as forced displacement and evacuations continue from frontline regions, according to UNHCR.
“It is significant for us, because it is the first time that a UNHCR facility is being targeted or attacked,” Castel-Hollingworth said.
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UNHCR said it was part of a broader trend of attacks on humanitarian convoys.
Last week, two clearly marked UN convoys with humanitarian workers were hit by drones: one truck was delivering aid in the Dnipropetrovsk region, while a convoy on the way to Ostriv in the Kherson region was also targeted, UNHCR said.
The Kremlin on Friday accused Ukraine of carrying out a “monstrous crime” after Russian officials said an overnight Ukrainian drone attack on a Luhansk region college had killed at least four people and left 35 children wounded.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify what happened independently and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which is fighting to try to return Luhansk, one of four regions Russia unilaterally claimed as its own in 2022 in what Kyiv said was an illegal land grab.
Photographs and video released by the Russian authorities showed rescue workers carry a man on a stretcher out of the rubble, severely damaged buildings, one of which appeared to have partially collapsed, and fires still burning.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that those responsible needed to be brought to justice. – Reuters
