GENICHESK, July 28. /TASS/. Since the beginning of the year, Ukrainian forces have carried out over 70 attacks on buses in Russia, killing 24 citizens and injuring 204 more, including 14 children, according to data from regional and local authorities reviewed by TASS.

Most of the attacks happened in Donbass and Novorossiya, where Ukrainian forces hit passenger buses and bus depots 41 times. As a result, 112 buses were destroyed, with a little under half of those being in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

At the same time, the biggest number of casualties among bus drivers and passengers is registered in the Central Federal District, with 14 people killed and another 125 injured in 31 Ukrainian attacks. The Belgorod Region accounts for most of these cases, with 11 killed and 102 others wounded in Ukraine’s attacks.

Since the beginning of the year, one incident with a passenger bus has been reported in the Southern Federal District. On June 6, falling UAV debris destroyed a bus in Sochi’s Khostinsky City District. According to the emergency operations center in the Krasnodar Region, 15 people were in the bus and nobody was injured.

Moreover, on July 22, a school bus depot near a Wildberries logistics center that caught fire was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack on Krasnodar. Mayor Yevgeny Naumov reported that several vehicles cannot be repaired, while others sustained varying damage. In the end, the Krasnodar regional authorities decided to give 20 school buses to the city to organize the transportation of children.

Notorious cases

One of the most shocking incidents occurred on June 3, when Ukrainian forces hit a passenger bus traveling from Podolsk in the Moscow Region to Simferopol in the Republic of Crimea in the town of Yenakiyevo in the DPR. As a result of the attack, eight people died and 11 more suffered injuries. The Russian Investigative Committee opened a case under Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code (terrorist act) following the attack.

A few weeks later, on June 17, Ukrainian forces used a fixed-wing drone to strike a bus carrying a Belarusian children’s football team in Russia’s Bryansk Region. A woman accompanying the young athletes was killed and eight people were injured in the attack. Russian and Belarusian law enforcement agencies are constantly exchanging materials on a case opened in connection with the attack.

The most damaging attack in terms of material losses occurred in the Kherson Region in late June. According to Alexander Dudka, head of the Skadovsk District, 40 buses burned down overnight at a local depot, with most vehicles intended for carrying children and serving the Skadovsk, Golaya Prystan and Alyoshki Districts.

The latest attack occurred in the city of Gorlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. According to Mayor Ivan Prikhodko, the Ukrainian army employed a drone to strike a passenger bus in the Nikitovsky City District on Tuesday, with five civilians sustaining injuries of varying severity.