2 foreign aid workers killed in Ukraine by Russian shelling

Two foreign aid workers were killed Sunday after a van with four workers was hit by Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine. 

Road to Relief, a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization (NGO), said a van carrying four of their team members left from Slovyansk in Ukraine towards Bakhmut when the vehicle came under Russian attack near Chasiv Yar, a city 10 kilometers west of Bakhmut. The vehicle flipped over and lit on fire, the organization said in an Instagram post. 

Canadian volunteer Anthony Ihnat was confirmed to be dead, while German medical volunteer Ruben Mawick and Swedish volunteer Johan Mathias Thyr were both injured but in stable condition at separate hospitals, the organization said. 

The organization said the status of Emma Igual, a Spanish volunteer who served as the director of Road to Relief, is still unknown. Spain’s acting Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told Spanish media that officials in Madrid received “verbal confirmation” of Igual’s death, according to The Associated Press (AP).

Road to Relief said the volunteers were heading to the front-line villages in Bakhmut, a town in eastern Ukraine that was captured by Russian forces in May. Russia’s capture of the town marked a major win for the country after more than a year of setbacks in its war. Prior to Russia’s occupation of Bakhmut, the town symbolized freedom and resistance for Ukraine. 

According to Road to Relief’s website, the NGO was created in March 2022 to assist civil populations impacted by the Russian invasion and serves a total of 112 villages.

“The team’s efforts have resulted in numerous evacuations and crucial aid deliveries over the 18 months that we have been in operation,” the organization wrote on Instagram.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday it took down 26 out of a total of 33 Russian drones in the Kyiv region. Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, reported that debris from Iranian-made Shahed drones fell in multiple districts, injuring at least one civilian, according to the AP. 

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko also said one civilian was wounded in the city’s historic center and was treated on the scene. 

Ruslan Kravchenko, the governor of the Kyiv region, reported four people were injured in the drone strike, with one of the individuals hospitalized with brain and limb injuries. The others had minor injuries, Kravchenko said in a Facebook post. 

Kravchenko said an infrastructure facility and several other buildings were damaged. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.