On Thursday, Russian rockets killed 23 people, including three children, in a city in central Ukraine. The action was qualified by President Volodymyr Zelensky as an “open act of terrorism”.

23 people died in Vinnitsa in eastern Ukraine – Photo: Sergey Supinsky / AFP / ND

In Vinnytsia, photographs released by rescuers show burnt-out cars next to a ten-story building that was burned and destroyed by the explosion.

The attacks took place in an area of ​​the country that has so far been relatively remote from hostilities, as a meeting began in The Hague about crimes committed in Ukraine.

Zelensky demands special trial in The Hague

Speaking remotely at a meeting hosted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the European Commission and the Netherlands, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the creation of a “special court” to try “Russia’s aggressive crimes against Ukraine.”

At a conference in The Hague, which is attended by foreign and justice ministers, Zelensky said that “20 people have been killed this minute, three of them children. And many, many were injured.”

The rescue service later raised the death toll to 23 and said the search for 39 more people was ongoing.

According to the Ukrainian military, “three rockets” hit a parking lot near a commercial facility in the city center, where offices and small shops are located.

“Every day Russia kills civilians, kills Ukrainian children, fires missiles at civilian targets where there is nothing military. What is this if not an open terrorist attack?” the Ukrainian president condemned in Telegram.

The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmitry Kuleba, who was present at the meeting, once again condemned the “Russian war crime.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack an “open act of terrorism” – Photo: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/ND

Reaction in the UN and the EU

In a statement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the Russian attacks in Vinnitsa and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Guterres “horrified by today’s rocket attack on Vinnitsa.” […] The Secretary General condemns any attacks against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure and reiterates accountability for these violations,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

The EU (European Union) also considered the Russian attack an “atrocity”.

“The European Union condemns in the strongest terms the ongoing and indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets, including hospitals, medical facilities, schools and shelters,” the organization said in a statement.

In turn, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state-owned media group Rossiya Segodnya, said on Telegram that the Russian army told her that they had attacked “the house of officers, where the nationalists were sent.”

massive bombardment

In recent weeks, Moscow has begun to focus its strategy in the south and east of the country.

To the south, the city of Nikolaev, near Odessa (Ukraine’s largest port), was heavily bombed on Thursday morning (14). According to the president’s daily bulletin, “two schools, transportation infrastructure and a hotel were under attack.”

To the east, in the Donbass mining basin, partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, forces loyal to Moscow have said they are close to achieving their next goal.

“Seversk is under our operational control, which means that the enemy can come under our fire throughout the territory,” said one of the leaders of the pro-Russian rebels, Daniil Bezsonov, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.

According to the governor of the Lugansk region (which together with Donetsk forms the Donbass) Sergei Gaidai, “massive artillery and mortar shelling continues. [e] Russians are trying to advance to Seversk and open the way to Bakhmut. As a result of a bomb explosion in Bakhmut early in the morning on Thursday (14), a civilian was killed.

Weapons can be smuggled

Ukraine receives weapons from Western countries, and the European Union recently expressed concern that they are being smuggled out of the country.

In the face of Brussels’ concerns, a Ukrainian presidential adviser has asked lawmakers to set up a committee to oversee the incoming weapons.

Weapons supplied by the West will be “registered and sent to the front,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said on Telegram.

Despite several rounds of negotiations to end the conflict, Kyiv and Moscow have not been successful. But both delegations have had some success in exporting Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea.

Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of wheat and other grains. Almost 20 million tons of grain are blocked in the ports of the Odessa region due to the presence of Russian warships and mines laid by Kyiv to protect its coast.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that the war in Ukraine is the “biggest challenge” for the global economy, in a comment made ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Indonesia.