Ukraine Strike on Youth Football Team Bus Is “Open Fascism”: Lukashenko
14:44 18.06.2026 (Updated: 15:51 18.06.2026)
© Sputnik / Mikhail Metzel
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Belarus clearly states that the drone that attacked a passenger bus in Russia's Bryansk Region was of Ukrainian origin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday.
"We are not in a hurry to draw any conclusions, but we clearly state the fact that this is a drone of Ukrainian origin. This is a Ukrainian drone," Lukashenko said, as quoted by the Belta news agency.
The Ukrainian armed forces' attack is not even just a terrorist attack, but actual fascism, Lukashenko further stressed.
"This is another fact of banditry. And it is not even a terrorist act, it is open fascism when children are targeted," Lukashenko was quoted as saying.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry summoned charge d'affaires of Ukraine and handed a note of protest in connection with the UAV attack on a bus in Rusisa's Bryansk Region, Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ruslan Varankov said on Thursday.
"Today, the Charge d'affaires of Ukraine in the Republic of Belarus was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus... He was handed a note of protest in connection with the attack carried out by a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle on June 17, 2026, in the Bryansk Region of the Russian Federation on a civilian bus carrying Belarusian citizens," Varankov told reporters.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Ukrainian strike on a bus with Belarusian children in Russia's Bryansk Region was a targeted attack.
On Wednesday, acting governor Egor Kovalchuk said that Ukraine attacked a bus carrying a youth football team from the city of Gomel in Belarus near Russia's Bryansk. The team was traveling to Gelendzhik for vacation. A woman accompanying the team died, she was the wife of one of the coaches.
On Wednesday, acting governor Egor Kovalchuk said that Ukraine attacked a bus carrying a youth football team from the city of Gomel in Belarus near Russia's Bryansk. The team was traveling to Gelendzhik for vacation. A woman accompanying the team died, she was the wife of one of the coaches.
"It is obvious that this is another inhuman terrorist attack. It is obvious now, even before the investigation, that it was a targeted attack. Drone operators can clearly see where they are hitting. It was not a military vehicle, it was a bus that transported civilians, in this case children," Peskov told Russian media.
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case on terrorist attack into the strike on the bus, the spokesman added.
"There is no doubt who is behind this," Peskov said, adding that Russia's response to the Ukrainian attack on the bus carrying children will be the continuation of the special military operation.
"I would like to assume that this tragedy will again be ignored in European capitals, that again we will not hear any words of condemnation from the leadership in European capitals. But this does not mean that we should give up. On the contrary, we must continue to tell the whole world about these atrocities without exaggeration," Peskov concluded.
