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KYIV: Russian forces struck a UN aid convoy in the partially occupied southern Kherson region of Ukraine on Tuesday, Kyiv and the UN said, adding there were no casualties in the attack.
The United Nations said its convoy of four vehicles was clearly marked and came under attack from Russian drones and artillery while delivering aid to the frontline town of Bilozerka.
“Such attacks are utterly unacceptable. Aid workers are protected by international humanitarian law and should never be attacked,” said the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Matthias Schmale.
He added that two World Food Programme trucks were damaged in the strike, while local authorities said the remaining two were unscathed.

The UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, told AFP the convoy was carrying 800 individual packages “containing essential items for older persons, women and girls.”
“The area has a very high proportion of older people, many of whom are unable to relocate due to drones and shelling and rely on humanitarian assistance for survival,” Jacqueline Mahon, UNFPA Representative to Ukraine, told AFP.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga called the strike “another brutal violation of international law, proving Russia’s utter disregard for civilian lives and its international obligations““
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow.
A senior official in the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, published a photo showing a white truck marked with the World Food Programme emblem on fire with plumes of black smoke rising above it.
Ukrainian authorities and aid groups have said throughout the nearly four-year Russian invasion that their staff and facilities have come under bombardments from Moscow’s forces.
The Kherson region, which Russia claimed to have annexed in 2022, is partially controlled by Russian forces, who launch daily attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities from the southern banks of the Dnipro river.
Regional authorities said on Tuesday that three people had been killed by Russian artillery in the region’s largest town, also called Kherson.
One more civilian was killed by a small drone attack on a car in the nearby town of Nikopol.

KYIV: Russian forces launched powerful glide bombs and drones against Ukraine’s second-largest city in overnight attacks, hitting a hospital and wounding seven people, an official said Tuesday, as European military aid for Kyiv dropped sharply and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to ask US President Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles.
The Russian attack on Kharkiv in Ukraine’s northeast hit the city’s main hospital, forcing the evacuation of 50 patients, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said. The attack’s main targets were energy facilities, Zelensky said, without providing details of what was hit.
“Every day, every night, Russia strikes power plants, power lines, and our (natural) gas facilities,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
Russian long-range strikes on its neighbor’s power grid are part of a campaign since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022 to disable Ukraine’s power supply, denying civilians heat and running water during the bitter winter.
The Ukrainian leader urged foreign countries to help blunt Russia’s long-range attacks by providing more air defense systems for the country, which is almost the size of Texas and hard to defend from the air in its entirety.
“We are counting on the actions of the US and Europe, the G7, all partners who have these systems and can provide them to protect our people,” Zelensky said. “The world must force Moscow to sit down at the table for real negotiations.”
But the latest data on foreign military aid to Ukraine showed a sharp drop-off in recent help.
Military aid in July and August plunged by 43 percent compared to the first half of the year, Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks support to Ukraine, said Tuesday.
That fall occurred after the creation of a fund that pools contributions from NATO members, except the United States, to purchase American weapons, munitions and equipment for Ukraine. The financial arrangement is known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL.
In the first half of 2025, military aid had exceeded what was sent between 2022-2024, despite the lack of US contributions, the institute said.
Zelensky is due to meet with Trump in Washington on Friday.
The talks are expected to center on the potential US provision to Ukraine of sophisticated long-range weapons that can hit back at Russia.
Trump has warned Moscow that he may send Tomahawk cruise missiles for Ukraine to use. Such a move, previously ruled out by Washington for fear of escalating the war, would deepen tensions between the United States and Russia.
But it could provide leverage to help push Moscow into negotiations after Trump expressed frustration over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to budge on key aspects of a possible peace deal.
Tomahawk missiles would be the longest-range missiles in Kyiv’s arsenal and could allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision. Unlike the drones that Ukraine has used for such strikes so far, Tomahawks carry a much heavier warhead and are more difficult to intercept as they fly at low altitude to dodge air defenses.
Ukraine’s long-range attacks are already taking a toll on Russian oil production, Ukrainian officials and foreign military analysts say.
Its strikes using newly developed long-range missiles and drones are causing significant gas shortages in Russia, according to Zelensky.