Ukraine probes reports Russia shot at civilians in frontline town
Mykola Hrishyn, 71 (L), his wife Liudmyla, 72, and daughter Tetiana, 33, pose in the basement where they have been living for over two years after their apartment was destroyed by a Russian missile, in Kharkiv, on October 26, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. In March 2022, a Russian missile hit the building where the Hrishyn family were living, heavily damaging their apartment, and forcing the family to look for another place to live. In the summer of 2022 they moved to the basement of the same residential building where their apartment was located and since then have been living there.
Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP
Ukraine is investigating reports that Russian soldiers shot at civilians in the embattled frontline town of Selydove, prosecutors said Sunday.
A video posted on Telegram by "Ghost of Khortytsia", a Ukrainian army unit, purported to show Russian forces opening fire on a civilian vehicle.
The footage taken from a drone shows a person rushing around the side of a car, with an on-screen caption saying the vehicle had come under "enemy fire".
A second clip showed what appeared to be two Ukrainian soldiers accompanied by one of the car's occupants dragging an injured person away from the scene.
"During the attack, two citizens were inside the car, one of whom was wounded," the office of Ukraine's prosecutor general said in a statement.
Ukrainian soldiers arrived at the scene and dragged the victim away from the line of fire, providing the wounded person with first aid, it added.
It also said it was investigating reports that Russian forces had shot two women in the city, and that "dead civilians were found" in areas taken over by Moscow's forces.
The Russian army has been closing in on the eastern mining town of Selydove for weeks and are now on its outskirts, according to military bloggers.
Moscow has been accused before of shooting at and executing civilians in parts of Ukraine they have captured and controlled since the February 2022 invasion.
In April 2022, the bodies of dozens of civilians, some with their hands tied, were found in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha after a month-long occupation by Russian forces.