A Russian rocket attack on Thursday on northern Ukraine killed two people from the Danish Refugee Council who were clearing mines in an area previously occupied by Moscow’s forces, the local Ukrainian governor said.
Experts say Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world, with teams of deminers across the north, south, and east, where Ukraine retook land captured by Russia at the start of its 2022 invasion.
“The Russians deliberately targeted workers from the Danish Refugee Council’s humanitarian demining mission… two people are known to have been killed,” Chernihiv regional governor Vyacheslav Chaus posted on social media.
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The strike hit near the outskirts of the regional capital of Chernihiv, 125 kilometres (80 miles) north of Kyiv.
“First, the Russians littered the area with explosives and mines. Now they are killing people, civilians who are risking their lives to clear our land,” Chaus added.
Three more people were wounded in the attack, he said.
Russian forces surrounded the city at the start of the war, having invaded from Moscow’s ally Belarus, 50 kilometres away.
