Civilians killed in cars trying to escape Russian shelling as Vladimir Putin slams ‘Satanic’ West

A Ukraine official has slammed Russia for attacking civilians trying to escape shelling as “cruelty that has no justification”.

The bodies of 20 people were found following an attack on a convoy of cars with civilians near the town of Kupiansk in northeastern Ukraine, the governor of the Kharkiv region said.

“In the Kupiansk district, a shot-at convoy of cars containing civilians was found. According to preliminary data, 20 people died in the cars,” governor Oleg Synegubov said on the Telegram messenger site on Saturday.

Russians “attacked civilians who tried to escape the shelling. This is cruelty that has no justification,” Synegubov added.

Dusya, 86, is carried on a stretcher by volunteers in Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, where 20 civilians were reportedly killed. Picture: Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP

Shelling marks are seen in Kupiansk, Kharkiv region. Picture: Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP

On Friday AFP reporters saw the bodies of at least 11 civilians, who died on an exposed section of road as defeated Russian forces retreated from Kupiansk.

The Ukrainian troops who found the group of destroyed civilian cars with dead and in some cases burned bodies, said they believed Russian troops had attacked a civilian convoy.

The bodies remained where they died in and around the six vehicles on a road from the village of Kyrylivka, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of Kharkiv.

A small van or minibus was completely burnt out, with the carbonised remains of four people within. At least one of these corpses appeared small enough to have been a child.

Russia’s February invasion left its forces in command of a swath of northern and eastern Ukraine, but this month a lightning counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region has driven them back.

Russian forces have been accused of brutalising and murdering civilians in occupied areas several times during the seven-month-old war.

Viktoria Plotnykova, 20, holds her 9-month-old daughter Rita as they evacuate on the destroyed bridge over the Oskil River in Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, on September 29. Picture: by Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP

Ukraine’s bid to join NATO

Ukraine has officially applied to join NATO after Vladimir Putin declared four territories of Ukraine to be Russian, raising fears that nuclear war could break out.

In a rambling speech in which he branded the West “Satanic”, Mr Putin blamed the US for this week’s apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

He also formally signed decrees declaring Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be Russian in the biggest land grab since World War II.

The move was immediately condemned by Western leaders, who said they would never recognise the regions as being Russian.

In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had formally submitted its bid to join NATO.

If Ukraine does become a member of the Western military alliance, all other nations in the bloc would likely be bound to declare war on Russia.

Article 5 of NATO’s treaty says that if an ally is a victim of an attack, every other member will “consider the act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the ally attacked”.

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Vladimir Putin has formally annexed four regions of Ukraine. Picture: Grigory Sysoyev/Sputnik/AFP

“We have already made our way to NATO,” Mr Zelensky said.

“We have already proven compatibility with the Alliance’s standards.

“They are real for Ukraine — real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction. We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other. That’s what the Alliance is. De facto.

“Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure. In a process that is consistent with our value in protecting our entire community. In an expedited manner.

“We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine’s application for accelerated accession to NATO.”

Mr Putin’s annexation of the four regions follows a series of sham referendums that have not been recognised internationally.

The total area claimed covers 90,000 square kilometres, around the same size as Hungary.

Mr Zelensky vowed to reunite Ukraine.

“The entire territory of our country will be liberated from this enemy — the enemy not only of Ukraine, but also of life itself, humanity, law and truth,” he said.

“Russia already knows this. It feels our power. It sees that it is here, in Ukraine, that we prove the strength of our values.”

Earlier at the Kremlin, Mr Putin made a series of wild claims during a speech beamed across the nation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Picture: Sergei Supinsky/AFP

“People have made their choice — and that choice is beyond any doubt,” Putin said.

He vowed to “defend our land with all means” — raising fears of a nuclear escalation in the war with Ukraine.

“People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our citizens forever,” he added.

Mr Putin claimed “millions of people” had “opted” to become Russian, despite voting in phony referendums while being held at gunpoint.

He also claimed people in the Donbas region had been “victims of inhumane terrorist attacks conducted by the Kyiv regime”.

Mr Putin also made a thinly-veiled nuclear threat, saying the US had started a “precedent” by using atomic bombs against Japan at the end of World War II.

He added that he did not want to rebuild the Soviet Union, but said people in the occupied territories shared a “common history” with Russia.

“Despite all the difficulties, they have carried through this love for Russia, and this feeling cannot be exterminated by anyone,” Mr Putin said.

“The USSR is no more. We can’t bring the past back. And Russia doesn’t need it anymore. We are not striving towards that.”

He earlier claimed the last Soviet leaders had “destroyed our great country”.

The Russian tyrant called on Kyiv to return to the negotiating table, but said they must “respect the expression of the will of the people”.

“We will protect our land using all our forces and we will do everything to ensure people’s securities,” he added.

Mr Putin also used the speech, which was projected onto a big screen in Red Square, to slam Western powers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP

“The dictatorship of the Western elite is directed against all societies, including against the peoples of those Western countries themselves,” Mr Putin said.

“It’s a challenge for all. This means the total negation of the human, the overthrow of religion and traditional values as the crushing of freedom becomes to look like the opposite of religion – open Satanism.

“The West is looking new opportunities to hit us and they always dreamt about breaking our state into smaller states who will be fighting against each other.

“They don’t want to see us a free society. They want to see us as a crowd of slaves.

“They don’t need Russia. We need Russia.

“They have been colonisers and they remain colonisers, they discriminate and they distinguish between the first class of nations and second class nations.”

I've watched a lot of Putin speeches over the last 10-15 years and this is the most anti-US one by a really long way.

If I were a western policymaker wondering if he'd really use nuclear weapons – and he hasn't even got to them yet – I'd be very concerned. pic.twitter.com/3lXMRH4YkI

— max seddon (@maxseddon) September 30, 2022

He also blamed the US for this week’s apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

“It’s obvious to everyone who did it,” he said.

The annexation was immediately met with condemnation.

The US immediately imposed new sanctions on hundreds of business leaders and politicians in Russia.

President Joe Biden branded Putin’s annexation “fraudulent” and said the US would not recognise the regions as part of Russia.

EU leaders vowed they would “never recognise” Russia’s illegal claims over Ukraine and accused the Kremlin of putting global security at risk.

“We firmly reject and unequivocally condemn the illegal annexation by Russia of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,” the 27 leaders said in a statement.

– with AFP