Russian FPV Drone Destroys Swiss-Donated Evacuation Vehicle in Donetsk Region

A Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone struck an armored evacuation vehicle of the Proliska Humanitarian Mission near Kramatorsk, Donetsk region on Wednesday, Oct. 21, in what marked its 120th attack on the group since the beginning of Russia’s war in 2022.

The drone, armed with a shaped-charge anti-tanked munition, hit the vehicle at 2:50 p.m. local time, as the crew was heading back to Kramatorsk on a mission to evacuate people with limited mobility. According to the head of the organization, Yevhenii Kaplin, the charge burned through the vehicle’s armored capsule and set it on fire.

“All crew members ran from the vehicle a second before it was hit,” Kaplin said in a statement on social media, confirming that there were no casualties.

Crew warned of the drone by locals

Proliska humanitarian crews had reportedly spent the day evacuating immobile, seriously ill and wounded residents from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk to an intermediate point, after which they were handed over to other crews for further transport in specialized medical vehicles.

According to Kaplin, the organization had rescued 18 people by midday.

While driving along the Oleksandrivka-Kramatorsk highway through the village of Ocheretyne, local residents began running away and signaling to the crew that a drone was approaching.

The warning prompted the team leader to order everyone out of the vehicle before it was hit.

“This armored vehicle had been handed over to us just two months ago by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation on behalf of the Swiss government,” Kaplan said, adding that the evacuations “were carried out with financial support from the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund.”

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Since receiving the vehicle, the Proliska humanitarian organization evacuated more than 500 residents of the Donetsk region and helped deliver humanitarian convoys to isolated frontline settlements.

According to Kaplan, Wednesday’s strike marked the 120th attack on Proliska’s staff, volunteers, vehicles or warehouses since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Wednesday’s strikes on Sloviansk injure children

On the same day, Russian forces repeatedly struck nearby Sloviansk, injuring at least eight people, including two boys aged 7 and 12.

Donetsk Regional Governor Vadym Filashkin reported that the city was attacked with guided aerial bombs (KABs) and an FPV drone, damaging six apartment buildings, a hotel, a shop and three cars. Five other vehicles were destroyed as well, he said, without providing further details.

“Children should not pay with their health and lives for adults’ decisions to stay under constant shelling,” Filashkin said, urging residents to evacuate to safer region of Ukraine.

“There are no safer places in the Donetsk region,” he continued. “No home and no circumstances are worth a child’s life.”

On Monday, Oct. 19, Russian forces struck a crowded park in Nova Vodolaha, Kharkiv region with a drone, killing six people, including two children.

The youngest victim was a little girl just over a year old, who was killed sitting in her stroller. Her mother, Inna, later died in hospital.

Such attacks reflect a pattern that has defined the war, now in its fifth year. Although international humanitarian law prohibits deliberate strikes on civilians, Russian strikes on private homes, parks, and public transport have continued almost daily across Ukraine.