Russian strike kills pension recipients as civilian attacks rise

Olesia Safronova, Bloomberg News on Sep 9, 2025

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A Russian strike killed at least 24 people as they collected pension payments in eastern Ukraine, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to renew calls on the U.S. and Western allies to respond to a spike in attacks on civilians.

The bomb assault on the rural settlement of Yarova in the eastern Donetsk region injured another 19 people, Ukrainian State Emergency Service said on Telegram Tuesday. Zelenskyy condemned the attack, which struck a group of people gathered around a vehicle distributing pension funds, as “brutally savage” in a social media post.

“The world must not remain silent. The world must not remain idle,” the Ukrainian leader said. “A response is needed from the United States. A response is needed from Europe. A response is needed from the G-20.”

The strike follows a massive attack on Kyiv on Sunday, in which Russia deployed a record number of missiles — mostly over residential areas — and damaged the main government building in the center of the capital. The Kremlin has stepped up such raids, driving a rising death toll among civilians after President Donald Trump failed to convince Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks to end the war during their summit in Alaska last month.

‘Wars have rules’

Donetsk has become the epicenter of intense fighting as Russia makes a push to control the region, which includes heavily fortified areas of strategic importance for Kyiv.

“In recent days, the Donetsk Region has seen a rise in civilian casualties and damage as hostilities have intensified,” Matthias Schmale, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Attacks affecting civilians as they go about their daily lives are unconscionable. Wars have rules.”

Igor Smelyansky, the chief executive of Ukraine’s state postal service, Ukrposhta PJSC, said the company would change procedures on distribution pensions on areas close to the front line.

That would aim to find a “balance between security and providing people with basic services,” he said.

At their meeting in the southern French port of Toulon late last month, German and French officials discussed Russian troops massing outside Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian-held stronghold in the Donetsk, according to people familiar with the matter.

Zelenskyy said last month that Russia had redeployed 100,000 soldiers to the frontline outside the city, which Kremlin forces have tried to encircle and seize without success for more than a year.

The latest attack came as Ukrainian and Western officials gathered in London for the meeting of the so-called Ramstein group, which has coordinated military support for country since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

“Our key task is to ensure uninterrupted military and financial assistance to Ukraine, strengthen air defense, and develop joint defense industry production,” Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said on X.

At same time, the European Union is discussing the details of its 19th package of sanctions against Russia, which includes proposed measures to target Russian banks and the country’s energy trade, Bloomberg reported earlier.

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With assistance from Deana Kjuka.

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