Russian attacks kill eight in Ukraine's southeast, target buses

KYIV, April 7 - Russian attacks on Ukraine's southeast on Tuesday killed eight people and injured more than two dozen others, officials said, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of escalating strikes instead of agreeing to an Easter ceasefire.

Moscow's troops targeted two buses in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, its governor Oleksandr Ganzha said on the Telegram messaging app.

A small FPV (first-person-view) drone smashed into a bus approaching a stop in Nikopol's city centre, he said, and later another bus came under attack in a neighbouring community.

Four people were killed in Nikopol and at least 16 were injured, officials said, adding that five people were injured when the second bus was hit.

"When such terror against people and lives occurs daily, blocking new sanctions against Russia, attempting to weaken existing ones, and trading with Russia all look bizarre," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X.

The images from Nikopol he shared showed the burnt bus with smashed windows. Bodies lay on the pavement nearby as rescuers were helping the injured.

In the southern city of Kherson, less than 5 kilometres (3 miles) from the frontline, a non-stop half-hour Russian attack on a residential area killed four elderly people and injured seven more, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.

Ukrainian officials and human rights organisations have accused Moscow's troops of deliberate and systemic FPV drone attacks on civilians, in particular in Kherson.

"In Kherson, civilians are effectively subjected to constant so-called 'safaris', with casualties every day," Zelenskiy said, commenting on the Tuesday attack.

Russia denies targeting civilians, but hundreds of thousands have been killed and injured in its strikes since Moscow's forces invaded Ukraine in early 2022. REUTERS