A Ukrainian drone struck a bus in the western Bryansk region on Wednesday, killing at least one person and injuring several others, including children from a Belarusian youth soccer team, Russian authorities said.
Acting Bryansk Governor Yegor Kovalchuk said a woman was killed and six people were hospitalized following the attack. He said the group of youth soccer players from the Gomel region of neighboring Belarus had been returning from a vacation in southern Russia.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s investigative body, said it launched a criminal investigation into the incident, which it is treating as an act of terrorism.
According to federal investigators, 44 passengers were inside the double-decker bus when the drone struck, 28 of whom were children.
Belarus said it dispatched teams of medics to the Bryansk region to assist Russian doctors with treating victims of the attack. It said it would also help arrange their transportation back to Belarus.
Ukraine’s military dismissed the allegation that it targeted a bus with youth soccer players as “false.”
“We regard such reports as yet another information provocation orchestrated by the Kremlin,” it said in a statement. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine engage exclusively lawful military targets.”