Russian airstrike on east Ukraine village kills 24 pensioners

YAROVA, Ukraine (Reuters) - A Russian airstrike killed 24 elderly people who were collecting pensions in a village in eastern Ukraine, officials said on Tuesday, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to urge Kyiv's allies to increase pressure on Moscow to end its war.

Russian troops have pressed a grinding offensive across much of the eastern Donetsk region as diplomatic efforts to achieve peace in the 3-1/2-year-old war have largely stalled.

Zelenskiy said a guided bomb had struck the village of Yarova, about 15 miles (24 km) from the city of Sloviansk, a Ukrainian stronghold, and several kilometres behind the front line.

"Directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed," he wrote on X alongside footage showing bodies strewn across the ground.

Twenty-four people were killed and another 19 people were wounded, the State Emergency Service said. All of the dead were elderly, said regional governor Vadym Filashkin.

"The world must not remain silent," Zelenskiy said. "The world must not remain idle. A response is needed from the United States. A response is needed from Europe. A response is needed from the G20."

Hours after the morning attack, workers were still digging through debris and personal items littered across a yard. A small black cell phone rang unanswered.

"Who's left here? All pensioners and old folks," said local resident Vasyl Nehoduyko, 65. "There's no one else."

He added that he saw what he described as a reconnaissance drone fly overhead before the strike. 

Russia did not immediately comment on the attack. Moscow has denied targeting civilians, but tens of thousands have died since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Last week, a Russian airstrike near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv killed two people from a Danish-sponsored humanitarian demining mission.

"Is this what Russia means when it talks about peace? When will Russia stop killing people?" wrote European Council President Antonio Costa on X.

(Reporting by Reuters stringer and Yulia Dysa, Writing by Dan Peleschuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Gareth Jones)