An official announced Thursday the death of two French people in Ukraine.
These are two “volunteers”.
Several other people were lightly injured in a Russian strike in Beryslav, near Kherson in southern Ukraine.
“Foreign volunteers were killed and injured due to an enemy strike on Beryslav,” wrote the governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, on the Telegram messenger.
“The Russian army killed two French citizens.
Three other foreigners were slightly injured” as well as a Ukrainian, he continued, without specifying the exact functions of these “volunteers”.
This expression is often used to refer to workers in humanitarian organizations.
Prokudin also offered his “sincere condolences to the families of the dead”.
The injured were hospitalized.
Condolences from the embassy
The Ukrainian national police, for their part, indicated that two men of French nationality died following a drone attack, and that three men and a woman were injured.
She announced the opening of an investigation into violations of the laws and customs of war.
“All the victims had come to the Kherson region as volunteers,” she added.
Today 2 French volunteers were killed in an attack on Beryslav, bombarded daily by the Russian army.
They came to Ukraine with a humanitarian mission and their solidarity will never be forgotten.
Condolences to France, to the families and their loved ones pic.twitter.com/cJZvfStZ5s
— UA Embassy in France (@UKRinFRA) February 1, 2024
Requested during the night from Thursday to Friday by AFP (Agence France presse), the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond.
The Ukrainian embassy in France presented its “condolences to France, to the families and their loved ones” late Thursday evening.
The two “volunteers came to Ukraine with a humanitarian mission and their solidarity will never be forgotten”.
Beryslav, which had a population of around 12,000 before the war, is located on the northern bank of the Dnieper River, near the front line.
On January 27, a person was killed there by an explosive launched by a Russian drone.