A missile strike hit a convoy of cars in southern Ukraine on Friday leaving nearly two dozen civilians dead, according to reports. The convoy was assembling near Zaporizhzhia city to take supplies into the Russian-occupied area of Zaporizhzhia province; the city, the regional capital, is still under Ukrainian control. The missile hit near two lines of cars, peppering the vehicles with lethal shrapnel. “So far, 23 dead and 28 wounded. All civilians,” Zaporizhzhia regional governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on Telegram. According to a Reuters eyewitness account, the vehicles were loaded with the occupants’ belongings. In one yellow car, a body was seen slumped from the driver’s seat onto the passenger’s seat, his left hand still on the steering wheel. News of the atrocity comes just hours ahead of a Kremlin ceremony in which Russian President Vladimir Putin will annex four occupied regions of Ukraine into the Russian Federation in the largest European land-grab since Hitler.
