Surrounded by body bags – Putin’s ‘war crimes’ only strengthen Ukraine’s resolve
There was an awful near silence as the war crime investigators went about their business and the bodies of the victims were methodically packed into body bags.
We counted at least 15 body bags being loaded one on top of each other into a succession of ambulances. The death toll is higher and includes several children, one a baby just a few months old.
The attack was so swift and so deadly, when we arrived at the scene, many of the victims were still where they had died.
An elderly man’s hand was still clasping his steering wheel, frozen in time, his body slumped sideways onto the passenger seat.
Two young women were laying on the ground outside their vehicle, their legs at grotesque angles and flies massing round open wounds in their faces.
Perhaps they’d been chatting to each other when the missiles hit. A group were all in their seats in the van they were travelling in.
Someone had covered their bodies with thin white sheeting but you could still make out the front passenger, his mouth open, head back as he’d been killed.
The vehicles were packed with suitcases and medical packs the group were taking only a few miles down the road to help relatives, the elderly and the ill inside Russian-controlled territory.
According to Vladimir Putin, all this area is now Russian after he signed a decree annexing not only Zaporizhzhia but also Kherson and the two Donbas regions, Luhansk and Donetsk.
But in this clearing which was once the site for a car parts market, the Ukrainians who were gathering the DNA of their countrymen and women were digging in once again for a fight to hold on to their territory, but also a legal war which they’re determined to win.
“These are definitely war crimes,” the Ukrainian interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi told us after visiting the site.
“And Putin should pay for what he’s done.”
The aid convoy was a routine convoy. Up to 150 people met here daily first thing in the morning having got permission from the Russian authorities to visit the areas under Russian control.
They were planning to take out elderly or ill relatives who wanted to flee as well as deliver some provisions for those who didn’t want to leave their homes. They had no reason to suspect they would be the target of any attacks.
One witness, who asked only to be called Valeriy, said he couldn’t understand the questions about who had carried out this atrocity.
Many Ukrainians have said the spike in attacks to Russian losses on the battlefield
“I’m in shock from the rhetoric of journalists from Germany, from France, who ask who did this,” he told us.
“I speak with Russian soldiers just there (he points in the direction of the Russian-controlled areas) and even the Russian soldiers don’t think who did this… they know the Russian army bombed this.”
We spot Olga Linik on her telephone.
She’s obviously anxious and tells us she’s trying to find her parents. Her mother and father are both doctors and were in the convoy.
A crater left after the attack
“I tried to persuade them to stay with me in Dnipro but they insisted they wanted to go and help people in the Russian areas,” she explains.
“My father rang me and I don’t know what’s happened but he said he tried to save my mother for an hour but I don’t know what happened.”
She breaks off to receive a call. It’s her father who comes out from amidst all the busted vehicles in the convoy and flings his arms around her, sobbing.
Her mother hasn’t made it.
The two walk off back into the bomb site where Olga and her father say their final goodbyes, arms around each other, their mother’s black body bag at their feet.
At the time of writing, according to the Ukrainian police 30 people in the convoy have died, including children, and 88 more have been injured, a number of them critically wounded, in a string of attacks on Zaporizhzhia throughout the day.
Many Ukrainians we spoke to attributed the spike in attacks to Russian losses on the battlefield.
But the attack on the civilian convoy also came hours before the Russian President publicly declared his country’s annexation of the four Ukrainian regions.
But the devastating civilian attacks only seem to have hardened the resolve of the Ukrainians and their leader with Volodymyr Zelenskyy slapping in his application for Ukraine to become a member of NATO.
It’s a threat which was said to have prompted his Russian counterpart to mount his “special operation” in the first place. The situation on the ground in Ukraine looks set to become a lot worse.
Also by cameraman Jake Britton, and producers Chris Cunningham and Artem Lysak in Zaporizhzhia.
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World
Russia calls meeting with UK ambassador after Lord Cameron says Ukraine ‘has right’ to strike inside Russia with UK weapons
Russia has warned that Ukrainian strikes on its territory with UK-supplied weapons could bring retaliatory attacks against British military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian soil or elsewhere.
During a trip to Kyiv last week, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said Ukraine “absolutely has the right” to strike back at targets inside Russia using British-supplied weapons.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the UK’s ambassador to Moscow had been “summoned” to make him “reflect on the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps by London”.
The UK’s Foreign Office, however, contested the claim saying the ambassador had not been “summoned” but he had just taken part in a diplomatic meeting with ministry officials.
British ambassador Nigel Casey was called in for a formal protest, the Russian foreign ministry claimed, as it said Lord Cameron’s remarks recognised that Britain – which has given Ukraine billions of pounds worth of weapons to defend itself in the war against Russia – was now de-facto a part of the conflict.
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“Casey was warned that in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory with British weapons, any British military facilities and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and abroad could be targeted,” the foreign ministry said.
“The ambassador was called upon to reflect on the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps by London and immediately refute the belligerent provocative statements of the head of the Foreign Office in the most decisive and unambiguous way.”
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement: “The British Ambassador was not summoned. He met Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials for a diplomatic meeting.
“The Ambassador reiterated the UK’s support for Ukraine in the face of unprovoked Russian aggression, and restated the UK’s position on providing support to Ukraine.”
During Lord Cameron’s visit to Ukraine last week, the foreign secretary reiterated Britain’s unwavering support for Ukraine, whose troops have been fighting Russia’s invasion since the Kremlin launched its “special military operation” in February 2022.
“Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it’s defending itself,” Lord Cameron said.
Senior Israeli officials have been threatening a major military operation into the city of Rafah and surrounding areas in southern Gaza for weeks.
On Sunday, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant warned it could take place “imminently” as talks on a ceasefire with Hamas fizzled-out in Cairo.
Now, they have taken a major step towards it.
War latest: Families flee Rafah as IDF orders 100,000 to evacuate
On Monday morning, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) released a statement instructing people in southeastern Gaza to advance towards an “expanded humanitarian area” to the north, centred around the city of Khan Younis, and a coastal community called Al-Mawasi.
The IDF said it “includes field hospitals, tents and increased amounts of food, water, medication and additional supplies”.
The claim will be greeted with scepticism by international aid agencies that have argued the Israelis have failed to do enough to facilitate such aid.
Civilians are being told to move to an ‘expanded humanitarian area’ to the north
The UN’s refugee agency in Gaza, UNRWA, immediately questioned the operation on X.
UNRWA said an offensive “would mean more civilian suffering and deaths” and that “the consequences would be devastating for 1.4 million people”.
The vast majority of people living in southern Gaza have already been displaced by the fighting further north.
And in what represents a significant juncture, the Israelis are instructing them to return to areas that have already badly damaged in this conflict.
Israel has been dropping evacuation leaflets from the air. Pic: AP
Khan Younis was placed under siege by the IDF in January and many neighbourhoods have been partially – or completely – destroyed.
However, there are no doubts about the Israelis’ intent.
Leaflets are now being dropped in southeastern Gaza, stating: “Anyone in the area puts themselves and their family members in danger. For your safety, evacuate immediately….”
Aerial strikes have caused havoc – but there are fears a ground attack would be even worse. Pic: Reuters
With this operation, Israel would test the very limits of support that it receives from Western countries like the US, the UK and members of the European Union.
Last week, US secretary of state Antony Blinken suggested an incursion into Rafah was a step too far, warning the Israelis had yet to produce “a clear, credible plan to protect civilians”.
Until it does, Mr Blinken said Washington “cannot and will not support a major military operation” in the area.
Read more:
Peace looks distant as ever after Israel refuses ceasefire terms
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Now, Israel’s chief ally and military backer will have to formulate a response, one which requires them to evaluate the nature and extent of this complicated relationship.
But it seems Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet have made up their minds.
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