Published: June 17, 2026 7:28 pm
Author: RT
The attack on a vehicle carrying a Belarusian children’s soccer team in Russia’s Bryansk Region killed one adult and injured six minors
The recent drone attack on a bus carrying a Belarusian children’s soccer team in Russia’s Bryansk Region may indicate that Ukraine is trying to draw Belarus into the conflict, according to several experts interviewed by RT. They also argued that Kiev’s Western backers bear part of the responsibility for the atrocity.
According to acting Bryansk Region Governor Egor Kovalchuk, the Ukrainian drone strike on Wednesday killed an adult woman who was accompanying the underage passengers, leaving at least six children injured.
READ MORE: Kremlin condemns Ukrainian ‘terrorist attack’ targeting Belarusian children
Speaking to RT, former Pentagon senior security policy analyst Michael Maloof said that the strike was deliberate, as the Ukrainian UAV operator could see that “it was clearly not a military target.”
“The fact that these children were from Belarus, it almost makes me think that the Ukrainians want to invite Belarus into the conflict,” he added.
Italian journalist and broadcaster David Carbonaro, who works for Radio Belarus, similarly told RT that Kiev is apparently “trying to widen the conflict as much as possible because they are on the brink of collapsing.”
Independent Dutch journalist Sonja van den Ende, in turn, said that “NATO is complicit in all these war crimes” as it continues to funnel financial and military aid to Ukraine.
“Europe, with all its big talk about democracy and about human rights, is not saying a word,” she noted, adding that Western mainstream media is also turning a blind eye to Ukrainian attacks on civilians in Russia.
