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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Milo Boyd

Volodymyr Zelensky vows revenge on the 'ba*****s' who killed fleeing Ukrainian family

The President of Ukraine has vowed to find "find every b*****d" who attacked the country after eight fleeing civilians were killed by Russian shells.

In a fiery address on Sunday, Volodymyr Zelensky promised a day of judgement after the deaths of evacuating Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian leader spoke following the tragedy in Irpin, where four members of one family were killed when missiles struck.

Eight died in the attack overall, including a woman, her teenage son and a primary school-age daughter, plus a family friend.

They had been moving down a humanitarian corridor in search of safety before the invading forces broke the ceasefire agreement.

“They were just trying to get out of town," Zelensky said in a video message.

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"To escape. The whole family. How many such families have died in Ukraine. We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war.”

Addressing those responsible, he added: “There will be no quiet place on this earth for you. Except for the grave.”

“It’s murder, deliberate murder. Instead of humanitarian corridors, they can only ensure bloody ones.”

Zelensky went on to vow to "find every bastard who shot at our cities, our people, who bombed our land, who launched rockets."

Upsetting images emerged following the deadly shell attack on Sunday, with one showing several dead bodies lying beneath a white sheet.

Evacuees cross a destroyed bridge as they flee the city of Irpin (AFP via Getty Images)

Their belongings lay scattered around the street as a group of fighters fought to save their lives.

The mayor of Irpin described seeing the four killed “in front of my eyes” when a shell hit.

"It is impudence, they are monsters. Irpin is at war, Irpin has not surrendered,” Oleksandr Markushyn said on Telegram.

Hopes that civilians could be moved safely out of cities this morning quickly fell apart when it became apparent the humanitarian corridors only allowed people to move towards Russia or Belarus.

A spokesperson for Zelenskiy called the routes "completely immoral" and said Russia was trying to "use people's suffering to create a television picture".

"They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine," the spokesperson told Reuters.

Residents had to run for cover when they came under shell fire (REUTERS)

Dominik Stillhart, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), explained what has been going wrong with so-called humanitarian corridors.

He said both sides had been talking "for days", but problems remained confirming the detail of any ceasefire agreement - to allow civilians out of bombarded cities.

Stillhart said the challenge was to get the two parties to an agreement that is "concrete, actionable and precise".

A man and a child escape from the town on Sunday (REUTERS)

He added that so far there had only been agreements "in principle", which had immediately broken down because they lacked precision, regarding routes and who can use them.

Illustrating his point, he said some ICRC staff had tried to get out of Mariupol along an agreed route on Sunday, but soon realised "the road indicated to them was actually mined".

"That is why it is so important that the two parties have a precise agreement for us then to be able to facilitate it on the ground."

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