In Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, Russian troops shelled a group of civilians who were leaving the city. As a result of the attack, a man was killed, and the fate of an injured woman is currently unknown. She was evacuated towards Russia.
Viktor Trehubov, spokesperson for the Joint Forces Grouping, said this during a television broadcast, Ukrinform reports.
According to the spokesperson, the incident occurred the previous day at around 7:30 in the morning. Russian troops prompted 10 civilians to leave the city and then struck them with mortar fire.
At least two people, a man and a woman, were injured in the shelling. The man died, and the wounded woman, according to preliminary information, was evacuated towards Russia. What happened to her afterwards is unknown.
Trehubov also said that over the past week or two Russian troops had been using a route from Kupiansk via Holubivka to a gas pipeline pipe. He said they may have been taking civilians along this route as a "human shield", using them as cover while withdrawing their forces and evacuating wounded soldiers.
Previously, people in civilian clothing carrying weapons had been spotted on this route. Ukrainian troops published relevant video recordings. At the same time, during the latest incident no armed individuals were recorded among the column.
"It looks as though it was simply a group of civilians who were sent out of the city for such a provocation," Trehubov said.
- At the end of September, reconnaissance drones from the 2nd Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine’s "Khartiia" recorded Russian troops leading civilians out of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region while using them as cover. The video showed nine people, including children, elderly people and a person on crutches. Nearby walked men of conscription age in civilian clothing who, according to Ukrainian troops’ assessment, may have been Russian fighters who had taken off their uniforms.
- According to "Khartiia", the people were taken through the village of Holubivka to the "Shebelynka–Ostrogozhsk" gas pipeline and led inside the pipe, which the occupiers had previously used for covertly infiltrating assault troops into the city. Ukrainian troops did not open fire because civilians were present.
- On 13 October, Russian troops struck a column of civilians who were leaving the outskirts of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region during the so-called evacuation.