REFUGEE TRAGEDY
Ukrainian refugee killed when bus she was in veered off motorway in Italy after she fled Russian invasion
A UKRAINIAN woman has died as she fled the Russian invasion after a bus carrying around 50 refugees veered off a motorway and overturned in Italy.
Several people are also reportedly injured following the crash early this morning on the A14 highway in the Emilia-Romagna region.
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Firefighters used two cranes in an operation to set the bus upright and free those trapped inside.
According to local news outlets, the rest of those aboard were safety evacuated
Italian state radio said there were several injured in the accident on the A14 autostrada near Forli', a town in the Emilia-Romagna region in northeastern Italy. It said the rest of those aboard were safely evacuated.
The bus landed on its side on a grassy slope just beyond a highway guardrail and near a farm field close to the town of Forli in northeastern Italy.
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Italy's Interior Ministry said the bus had set out from Ukraine and was heading south to Pescara, an Adriatic port city, when it overturned.
The passengers were taken to a nearby police barracks for initial assistance, and would later resume their journey, the ministry said.
What caused the bus to overturn was under investigation.
Some 35,000 Ukrainians refugees who have fled the war raging on for the 18th day in their homeland have entered Italy, most of them through its northeastern border with Slovenia.
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According to the UN's refugee agency, around 2.6million Ukrainians have evacuated the country since Putin invaded late in February.
But it's been warned Britain and the EU may have to welcome 15million Ukrainian refugees if Putin keeps up his bloody campaign of terror.
The United Nations fears the number of people displaced by the increasingly brutal invasion will be three times higher than expected.
In a video address today, President Volodymyr Zelensky said almost 125,000 people have been evacuated via humanitarian corridors from conflict zones in Ukraine.
"Today the key task is Mariupol," he said, adding that a humanitarian supply convoy was now only 50 miles away from the besieged port city where more than 400,000 people are trapped.
More than 1,500 people have died in Mariupol during the siege, according to the mayor's office, and the shelling has even interrupted efforts to bury the dead in mass graves.
It comes as at least 35 people have been killed in a Russian airstrike at a base where foreign instructors were helping Ukrainians just 12 miles from the Polish border.
It comes as...
- Russia airstrike hits 12 miles from Nato border killing 35 at base where foreign instructors are helping Ukrainians
- Putin destroys entire city as Russians 'gun down fleeing women & kids'
- Western spies claim Putin 'has roid rage from cancer treatment'
- Moment another Russian convoy ambushed by brave Ukrainians using lethal anti-tank missiles
- Putin could 'unleash deadly virus seized from Ukrainian lab & blame US'
- Russia now attacking Kyiv from two sides in attempt to surround city
- Moscow sanctions Peppa Pig in bizarre act of retaliation against West
Russian forces fired more than 30 cruise missiles at the Yavoriv military base near Lviv, injuring 134 people, according to Ukrainian authorities as Kyiv warns Vladimir Putin could start "provoking"; Nato countries.
Foreign military instructors have worked at the Yavoriv International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security - but a Nato official said there were no personnel from the alliance at the base at the time of the strike.
Regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said Russian planes fired around 30 rockets at the facility - with some were intercepted before they hit.
It comes as battle around the capital is raging on as Russian forces close in, with brave Ukrainian soldiers setting up tank traps on the streets to repel invaders.
Putin's troops are inching closer and are believed to be just 15 miles from the city.
But Zelensky warned the Russians would only be able to take control of Kyiv if they "raze it to the ground" as the Ukrainian president confirmed around 1,300 of his troops had been killed since the conflict began.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has issued his toughest condemnation yet of the war in Ukraine, saying the "unacceptable armed aggression"; must stop.
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Speaking to thousands of people in St Peter's Square for his Sunday blessing, Francis also said the bombing of hospitals and other civilian targets was "barbaric" and with "no valid strategic reason".
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"In the name of God I ask you: stop this massacre!," he said, adding that Ukrainian cities risked "being reduced to cemeteries."
All you need to know about Russia's invasion of Ukraine
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