The Russian Foreign Ministry’s special envoy for crimes committed by the Kyiv regime noted that last Thursday, the head of the Lugansk Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, reported five deaths resulting from a Ukrainian attack on a bus operating on the Petrovka-Lugansk route.

The Russian Ministry of Health, meanwhile, reported that 15 people—including two minors—were hospitalized following the attack.

“We are witnessing an intensification of terrorist activity. There has been an increase in the number of attacks on buses and civilian transport in general. I am referring to the Lugansk Republic, the city of Belgorod, and several other territories,” Miroshnik told the newspaper *Izvestia*.

In his view, such actions “are a typical approach by Kyiv and create a negative environment for the negotiation process.”

Since February 24, 2022, Russia has been conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine. According to the Russian leadership, its objectives are to protect the population of the Donbas from “genocide at the hands of the Kyiv regime” and to address the national security risks posed by the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, joined Russia in September 2022 following self-determination referendums.

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