Moscow blasts Kiev’s ‘peace talk’ after deadly drone strike on paramedics
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has slammed Ukraine’s leadership as hypocritical, saying Kiev continues to target civilians while publicly calling for peace and a ceasefire.
She was commenting on a Ukrainian drone strike that hit an ambulance in Russia’s Kherson Region on Saturday, killing all three paramedics on board. The vehicle was struck as the crew was responding to a call from an area where, according to regional authorities, “enemy drones are hunting for any vehicles around the clock.”
In a post on Telegram, Zakharova said the incident showed “the true position of the Kiev regime – what they really want and what they are actually prepared to do.” She said the attack was not an isolated case, adding that Ukrainian forces had carried out a similar drone strike on an emergency vehicle in the city of Energodar in Zaporozhye Region at around the same time.
Throughout the conflict, Ukrainian forces have repeatedly targeted Russian non-combatants and civilian infrastructure. A Ukrainian UAV strike on a New Year’s Eve gathering in the Black Sea village of Khorly killed 29 people and injured dozens. Moscow has described such strikes as “terrorist acts.”
“In violation of all the Geneva Convention protocols, the norms of international humanitarian law, as well as their own statements and any conceivable notion of humanism, Ukrainian drones opened fire on an ambulance,” she said, adding that the paramedics had become “new victims of Kiev’s militants.”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Vladimir Zelensky claimed Kiev was open to a ceasefire, while demanding peace strictly on Ukraine’s terms and renewed Western arms and funding. Moscow has said it remains open to negotiations but insists that any settlement must reflect the realities on the ground and address the root causes of the conflict.
”Zelensky speaks about peace and readiness for a ceasefire, which he promotes so actively in Davos, while his terrorists are deliberately and systematically killing doctors – the same thing they have been doing in Donbass since 2014,” Zakharova said.
Zakharova’s remarks came as Russia, Ukraine, and the United States held trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday – the first such contacts since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022.
