Nine reported killed in strike on bus in occupied Luhansk region

Leonid Pasechnik, the Moscow-installed head of the occupied part of Luhansk region, has claimed that nine people were killed in a strike on a passenger bus. The incident occurred on a route between Lysychansk and Kadiivka (Pasechnik used the Russian name for the city — Stakhanov).

"As a result of this monstrous strike, eight people were killed on the spot. A twenty-year-old woman was taken to intensive care. Doctors fought for her life but could not save her. Her mother was injured," Pasechnik wrote on Telegram.

According to him, medics also hospitalized an eighteen-year-old girl, while three other passengers and the driver received necessary medical care. Meanwhile, Russian state news agencies TASS and Interfax reported five injured — the figures on the number of wounded differ.

Pasechnik did not disclose the circumstances of the strike but called the incident a "terrorist act" and a war crime. As of publication, Kyiv had not officially responded to these allegations.

The fifth year of war and civilian casualties

Ukraine is now in its fifth year of repelling Russia's full-scale military aggression. The fighting has been marked by frequent airstrikes and missile attacks, with both sides having noticeably increased their intensity in recent times.

Moscow and Kyiv both claim to be targeting military objects and targets linked to combat operations, yet such strikes regularly kill civilians — predominantly, according to available data, on the Ukrainian side. The UN estimates that at least 16,874 civilians have been killed since the war began, the vast majority of them in territories controlled by Kyiv that have come under attack from the Russian army.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz