The European Union has described as “heinous” and “barbaric” the missile attack by Russia on a market square in Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on 6 September. The strike killed at least 16 people, including a child, and injured dozens more.
Peter Stano, the EU Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said in a statement that the latest attack followed an escalation over the past months of missile and drone attacks all over Ukraine, especially on civilian objects, killing and wounding more than 410 civilians over the past two weeks alone.
“It comes in addition to Russia’s daily indiscriminate shelling and bombing near the frontlines causing hundreds of civilian victims,” his statement says. “The EU strongly condemns these attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and calls on Russia to immediately stop its inhumane and illegal aggression.”
The spokesperson said that Russia had also stepped up attacks on key Ukrainian grain export facilities, including in the Odesa and Danube regions, with the latest attack taking place on the night of 6 September.
“This further demonstrates how Russia is exacerbating the global food security crisis with its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, but also puts at full display Russia’s logic of maximising its economic profits at the expense of Ukraine, putting deliberately at risk millions of most vulnerable people worldwide,” Peter Stano said.
He added that “intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes” and “all commanders, perpetrators and accomplices of these atrocities will be held to account”.
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Originally published at https://www.einpresswire.com/article/654299009/russian-strike-on-kostyantynivka-intentional-attacks-against-civilians-are-war-crimes-says-eu
