Two Foreign Aid Workers Killed In Ukraine As Russian Drones Target Kyiv

An explosion of a drone is seen in the sky over Kyiv during a Russian drone strike on September 10.

Two foreign aid workers were killed and two others wounded in eastern Ukraine, officials said on September 10, hours after at least one person was injured in fresh Russian air strikes on the capital, Kyiv.

A van carrying the four aid workers "came under Russian attack" near the town of Chasiv Yar, the organization said on Instagram.

The volunteers were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being hit by shells on September 9, it said.

Road to Relief said Canadian Anthony Ihnat died in the attack, while German medical volunteer Ruben Mawick and Swedish volunteer Johan Mathias Thyr were seriously wounded.

The group said the whereabouts of the van's fourth passenger, Emma Igual, a Spanish national who was the organization's director, was not immediately known.

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Hours later, Spain's acting foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said that authorities in Madrid had received "verbal confirmation" of Igual's death.

The aid workers were on their way "to assess the needs of civilians caught in crossfire in the town of Ivanivske" on the outskirts of the war-torn city of Bakhmut, said Road to Relief, which helps evacuate wounded people from frontline areas.

Ukraine's military said on September 10 its forces had made modest headway in an area of the southern front line.

"We are moving forward! Defense forces in the Tavria area have advanced more than 1 kilometer," Ukrainian Army commander Oleksandr Tarnavskiy said in his daily update.

Russian forces, meanwhile, targeted Kyiv with dozens of Iranian-made Shahed drones early on September 10, wounding one person and causing a fire near a city park, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukraine's air defenses shot down 25 out of 32 drones, most of which targeted the capital and surrounding region, officials said, adding that the attack lasted nearly two hours.

"Drones came onto the capital in groups and from different directions," Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's city military administration, wrote on Telegram.

Debris from downed drones fell on Kyiv’s Darnytskiy, Solomyanskiy, Shevchenkivskiy, Svyatoshynskiy, and Podil districts, according to city authorities.

One person was injured in Podil, and a fire broke out near one of the city's parks, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The drone debris reportedly sparked a fire in an apartment in Shevchenkivskiy, but it was quicky extinguished.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about the latest attack on Kyiv. But Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses destroyed a Ukrainian-launched drone over Russia's southwestern Bryansk region at around 8.30 a.m. on September 10.

The ministry did not immediately report any casualties or damage.

The Russian charge d'affaires in Bucharest was summoned by the Romanian Foreign Ministry on September 10, following the discovery of new fragments of a drone similar to those used by the Russian military on Romanian soil, the Agerpres website reported.

Romania said on September 9 that it found new drone fragments on its territory near the border with Ukraine, in the second such discovery in Romania in a week.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said the findings indicated there has been "an absolutely unacceptable violation of the sovereign airspace of Romania, a NATO ally, with real risks to the security of Romanian citizens in the area."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on September 9 on X, formerly known as Twitter, that there was "no indication of intent" to hit the alliance member, but said the findings "are destabilizing."

With reporting by Reuters and AP