“The Russians could not have failed to understand what kind of vehicle they were targeting. This was a deliberate killing of civilians,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
He called for stronger sanctions against Moscow. “Pressure must be exerted on Russia to stop the killings,” Zelenskyy said. “Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy,” he said.
Oleh Hryhorov, head of the local military administration in Bilopillia, announced the death toll. He reported on social media that three of the injured are in serious condition and described the attack as “another war crime by Russia.”
Moscow did not immediately comment on the attack.
On Saturday, Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that an in-person meeting between the Kremlin leader and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy remains “possible,” but only if certain conditions are met first. Peskov did not specify those conditions, but he commented on the prisoner swap.
“What the delegations agreed to yesterday remains to be done. Of course, it is primarily a question of exchanging 1,000 for 1,000 [prisoners],” he said.
Putin and Zelenskyy have not met since December 2019.