Kiev is now denying that they fired the drone that struck a bus carrying a children’s sports team from Belarus, while it was traveling through Russia’s Bryansk Region. The June 17th assault—the same day as the drone attack on employees of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant—killed the wife of the soccer coach and injured six, including four of the children. All six were treated at a hospital.
The next day, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack, describing it as a “provocation” and an attempt to draw Belarus into the war. He claimed that they had “clearly established” that a Ukrainian-made drone struck the bus and that the driver had witnessed several drones before the attack. “We are not rushing to make any conclusions, but we clearly state the fact that this is a drone of Ukrainian origin. This is a Ukrainian drone.” He said that Ukraine had responded by stating that many people buy these drones. “That is, they claim ‘it’s not us’. It’s someone who bought it...”
Now, in what is no doubt a new and direct provocation to Lukashenko, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) says that they have just obtained a Russian document which says that no Ukrainian drones were detected in the area where the bus was. “Therefore, the SBU has grounds to believe that the strike on the bus carrying Belarusian citizens in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast was a special operation conducted by Russian security services.” Andrii Kovalenko, head of the infamous Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, weighed in, saying that the incident bore the hallmarks of a coordinated provocation unsupported by factual evidence.
The Investigative Committee of Belarus announced yesterday that their team arrived in Russia and examined the scene, the bus and the fragments of the drone. They stated on their Telegram channel: “A working meeting was held to discuss operational issues relevant to the investigation of criminal cases by agencies and the collection of evidence of a crime.”
Belarus’ permanent plenipotentiary representative to the CIS statutory and other bodies, Igor Nazaruk, said yesterday that this was a deliberate terrorist attack aimed at dragging Belarus into an international military conflict. “The bus was not alone; it was traveling alongside another vehicle. There were 88 vacationers in total, the majority of them children. Each bus bore a clearly visible ‘children’ sign, in full compliance with both Belarusian and international law. There were no military installations or deployed units in the vicinity of the attack by the Ukrainian drone (and it is conclusively established to be Ukrainian) that could in any way suggest that it was collateral damage. This was a targeted attack, a monstrous breach of all international conventions, including the Geneva Convention on the conduct of war. It defies every conceivable and inconceivable norm of international humanitarian law.”
Finally, Vladimir Pertsov, First Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration, yesterday said said on Belarus 1 TV channel: “The drone was packed with fragmentation elements aimed not at blowing up the bus, but at inflicting maximum casualties on the people inside. A large number of drones were operating in the area. This indicates that the operation was coordinated by human operators, not artificial intelligence. It was not a drone flying on a low battery and just hitting something at random (as some so-called opposition media claim).”
