Russian shelling kills three Red Cross workers in eastern Ukraine

PHOTO CAPTION: A cargo truck of the International Committee of the Red Cross burns after a Russian military strike in the village of Viroliubivka, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near a front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine September 12, 2024. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) -Russian shelling on Thursday killed three Ukrainians working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and injured two others in a village in the frontline Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said.

"Another Russian war crime. Today, the occupier attacked vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in the Donetsk region," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X.

The village of Viroliubivka came under shelling, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on the Telegram messenger app, reporting casualties.

The Prosecutor General's Office said on Telegram that ICRC employees had brought fuel briquettes to residents for heating before winter. They were unloading the aid when the attack happened, it said.

Two employees were hospitalized, and one was in severe condition, prosecutors added.

The Donetsk region, which Russian troops partially occupy, regularly comes under Russian shelling and airstrikes.

Moscow denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure in its invasion of Ukraine, although thousands of people have been killed in its attacks.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Mike Collett-White, William Maclean)