Ukraine blames Russia for aid worker deaths

Kyiv on Sunday blamed Russian forces for the killing of two aid workers, one Canadian and one Spanish, in east Ukraine, calling their deaths near the war-battered city of Bakhmut “a painful, irreparable loss.”

The defense ministry said Moscow’s troops had killed Emma Igual, a Spanish citizen who studied at the University of California at Berkeley, and Anthony Ihnat, a Canadian citizen both working for the NGO Road to Relief.

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It said in their statement that two German citizens working for the aid group had been injured in the incident in the eastern Donetsk region.

The industrial region has suffered the worst of the fighting of Russia’s invasion launched last February and Moscow claimed to have annexed the territory last year.

Kyiv said the aid workers had dedicated themselves to limiting the harm to civilians caught in the conflict, including by carrying out evacuations and distributing humanitarian relief.

The battle for Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian forces in May, has remained one of the bloodiest of the invasion with Ukrainian forces now pushing back along the northern and southern flanks of the town.

In February, 33-year-old US medic Pete Reed was killed near Bakhmut when his evacuation vehicle was hit by a missile.

In May, AFP video journalist Arman Soldin was killed in Chasiv Yar near Bakhmut by missile fire.

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