KYIV — A Russian glide bomb killed at least 21 people as they lined up to receive their pensions in a Ukrainian village Tuesday, the Ukrainian government said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the strike on Yarova, in the key battleground region of Donetsk, “brutally savage.” His foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, labeled it a “barbaric” “heinous crime” that “demands worldwide condemnation and action.”
The attack is the latest example of Ukrainian civilians being killed or injured in daily Russian aerial attacks.
On Sunday, Russia launched the largest such attack since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022. While many of these strikes use Iran-designed drones, Russia has increasingly used glide bombs: cheap, Soviet weapons retrofitted with wings and satellite navigation guidance systems.
With diplomatic efforts by President Donald Trump making little progress, both Zelenskyy and his minister used Tuesday’s attack to renew calls for the United States, Europe, and the G-20 to punish Russia for its daily assault on its smaller neighbor.
“The Russians continue destroying lives while avoiding new strong sanctions and new strong blows,” the president said. “The world must not remain silent. The world must not remain idle.”
The victims were “ordinary citizens, gathered for one of the most routine moments of daily life, cut down by Russian terror,” Yulia Svyrydenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, said in an online post. “The world must not remain passive,” she said.
NBC News has requested comment from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
As well as Russia’s deliberate, nightly bombardment of Ukrainian cities, some 98% of civilian casualties along the frontlines have happened in Ukraine-controlled territory, indicating that Russia was the aggressor, according to United Nations monitors. In total, July saw 286 people killed and another 1,388 injured, the highest since May 2022.
Russia currently controls around 20% of Ukrainian territory, including all of the Luhansk region and part of Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. He has made full control over these a key demand in his war aims, claiming that he wants to protect ethnic Russians there.
Trump has taken an increasingly tough rhetorical line on Russian President Vladimir Putin, giving him various ultimatums to stop the killing. But he has rarely followed through with significant steps to punish Moscow, often extending his deadlines.
On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled that the U.S. is open to partnering with European countries to impose more sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil in an attempt to “collapse” Moscow’s economy.
A day later, U.S. and European officials met at the U.S. Treasury Department to discuss various forms of economic pressure to exert on Russia, including new sanctions and tariffs on Russian oil purchases, a person familiar told The Associated Press.
Trump once said he could stop the war in 24 hours, but has found the reality more thorny.
Putin, who is making grinding, attritional battlefield gains, has not shifted his stance that he will only end the war if Ukraine effectively surrenders, demilitarizes, and abandons ambitions of growing ties with the West. Zelenskyy says he is ready to accept an immediate ceasefire, but is wary of allowing Russia to regroup and attack again.
Artem Grudinin reported from Kyiv and Alexander Smith reported from London.
