MELITOPOL, July 23. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces in recent months have intensified strikes on civilian transport, including passenger buses, in the Zaporozhye Region, as the Kiev regime and its Western handlers consider them their legitimate targets, Oleg Murachev, the region’s deputy regional security minister, told TASS.

"The number of Ukrainian strikes on civilian transport vehicles, including passenger buses and roads in the Zaporozhye Region has increased many-fold over recent months. According to the enemy’s barbarian, criminal logic, it’s one of the legitimate methods of warfare with us, and what's more, a very effective one, in their view and in the view of their Western handlers," Murachev said.

The Ukrainian armed forces are also increasing the use of various types of AI-powered unmanned systems, primarily of Western manufacture and at Western expense, the official noted.

On June 10, a Ukrainian drone struck a passenger bus as it was entering Melitopol. The passengers were able to leave the bus on their own power, with no casualties reported. In another incident on June 19, a Ukrainian drone attacked an empty passenger bus Berdyansk-Berestovoye-Andreyevka that was parked near a hospital. On June 21, a Melitopol-Kirpichnoye-Fruktovoye bus was damaged by fragments from a downed drone on the R-280 highway, with no injuries. On July 1, several settlements in the Zaporozhye Region suspended passenger bus service due to Ukrainian armed forces’ drone attacks. On July 8, a Ukrainian drone attacked a Krasnodar-Melitopol commuter bus while it was on the road. There were no casualties, as all nine passengers and two drivers had time to evacuate. Overnight to July 11, the Ukrainian armed forces again struck several passenger buses. On July 20, a school was attacked in the Priazovsky district, as a result of which the building and school buses were damaged.