UN Condemns Russian Drone Strike on Aid Convoy in Ukraine

World Health Organization Ukraine team came under attack while delivering over-the-counter first aid kits and trauma kits from WHO to the city of Bilozerka in the Kherson region as part of a UN interagency convoy together with colleagues from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs / OCHA Ukraine and the World Food Programme.

Russian drones struck a clearly marked UN convoy on Tuesday that was delivering desperately needed aid to a war-torn frontline town in southern Ukraine.

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, came under attack by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation while delivering aid to Bilozerka Town in the Kherson Region,” he said in a statement.

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 began, 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.”

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

The footage showed one of the damaged WFP trucks at the roadside, with flames and black smoke billowing from it.

“It is extremely important to remind all parties that humanitarian assistance must be facilitated and humanitarian workers must be protected,” he said.

Mr Schmale stressed 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 nearly 1,000 injured in Ukraine during September.

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