Children and adults who were traveling on a bus attacked by UAV of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast have returned home to Rechitsa, BelTA has learned

Two of Natalya Murashko’s children – son Ivan and daughter Aleksandra – were on the bus that came under attack. “I felt shock when I heard what happened. My first question was whether the children were alive. Thank God, they are alive,” the woman said as she waited for the buses to arrive in Rechitsa. She explained that her son was the first to get in touch and told her that they were all right.

“When my daughter called and said they had crossed the border, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Thank God they are home. We do not need Gelendzhik, we will relax by the Dnieper River and spend our vacation with the children in Belarus,” she added.

Oksana Bondarenko’s son Vladislav was also traveling to Gelendzhik, although he was not aboard the bus that came under attack. “I was at work when someone called and asked where my son was. I said he had left. Then they asked, ‘Don’t you know what happened?’ I just sat down. When they said it was not yet known which bus had been attacked [it was impossible to describe]. It was a terrible day for me,” she said.

“When I finally heard my son’s voice from Bryansk, that was all that mattered - just hearing him. If anything had happened to him, I would have blamed myself for the rest of my life,” the mother added.

A young passenger from the bus that was struck by UAV of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Daniil, described the moments immediately following the drone attack. “I saw that about three sections of the windows were gone. They had been blown out. Then they started helping the boys who had been injured off the bus. One boy’s face was completely covered in blood. Another was taken by a civilian man to the nearest hospital because he had lost consciousness for a few seconds. I was very frightened,” Daniil said.

As BelTA previously reported, on 17 June a bus belonging to Rechitsa Children’s and Youth Sports School No. 2 was struck by a drone in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast. The bus, which was traveling from Belarus on the Gomel-Gelendzhik route, was carrying 44 passengers, including 28 young athletes. All of them were on their way to a holiday camp. According to the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee, six people remain hospitalized in Bryansk Oblast.