Two aid workers are killed and two more injured in ‘Russian missile attack’ in eastern Ukraine
- Spanish citizen Emma Igual and Canadian Anthony Ihnat were killed in attack
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 defence ministry said Moscow’s troops had killed Emma Igual, 32, 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.
It said in their statement that German citizen and medical volunteer Ruben Mawick and Swede Johan Mathias Thyr working for the aid group had also been injured in the incident in the eastern Donetsk region.
The NGO said the vehicle the victims were travelling in suffered a ‘direct hit’ near Chasiv Yar yesterday, which caused the vehicle to flip over and catch fire.
In an online tribute NGO Action Beyond said Mr Ihnat was ‘an unbelievably gentle, kind guy who would light up any room’, according to the BBC.
The defence ministry said Moscow ‘s troops had killed Emma Igual (pictured), 32, 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
In an online tribute NGO Action Beyond said Anthony Ihnat (pictured) was ‘an unbelievably gentle, kind guy who would light up any room’
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.
The NGO said the vehicle the victims were travelling in suffered a ‘direct hit’ near Chasiv Yar yesterday, which caused the vehicle to flip over and catch fire (file image)
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