Twenty dead in attack on Ukrainians collecting pensions, Zelensky says

At least 21 people have been killed in a Russian air strike on a village in eastern Ukraine, local Ukrainian officials say.

The victims were ordinary people collecting their pensions in the Donetsk settlement of Yarova, said President Volodymr Zelensky. Donetsk regional leader Vadym Filashkin said emergency services were at the scene and as many people were wounded as killed.

Yarova is to the north of Sloviansk, one of the big cities in the region, and not far from the front line as Russian forces advance slowly in the east.

If confirmed, the death toll would be among the heaviest attacks on Ukrainian civilians in recent weeks, 42 months into Russia’s full-scale invasion.

At least 23 people were killed in overnight air strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv at the end of August.

At the weekend Russia launched its biggest air assault of the war on Kyiv so far, hitting the main government building in the capital, in what Zelensky said was a “ruthless” attack aimed at prolonging the war.

Posting graphic footage of the attack on Yarova online, Zelensky said there were “no words” to describe the latest Russian strikes. There was no immediate response from Russia’s military.

Vadym Filashkin said the attack took place at 12:30 local time on Tuesday, as pensions were being handed out. He posted a picture from the scene that appeared to show a badly damaged Ukrainian postal service vehicle of the type used to distribute pensions.

Yarova sits on a key railway line in Donetsk, between Lyman and Izium. It is also only about 6km (3.7 miles) away from the next village of Novoselivka, where Russian forces are closing in on the outskirts.

Ukraine’s state emergency service said another three people had died in earlier Russian shelling of settlements in Donetsk.

“The world must not remain silent,” Zelensky said, calling for a response from both the US, Europe and the G20 group of nations.