Elderly citizens were killed in “a horrific act of genocide” in the Ukrainian town of Kreminna when a Russian military tank opened fire on a care home, according to the regional official of Ukraine’s Luhansk. The casualty count was 56. 

Serhii Haidai revealed that the attack took place nine days ago, on March 11. According to Haidai, fifteen other residents of the care home were abducted and taken to the town of Svatove, which is now occupied by the Russian forces. 

Haidai reported the attack in a video statement shared on Twitter on March 12. In the video address, Haidai previously said that he had no information on fatalities. 

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“(Russian forces) opened fire on a nursing home for elderly people with a tank. There were only elderly people living there, many of them with disabilities. We have no idea how many people have died and how many survived. When we tried to reach the scene, they started shelling us,” Haidai said in the video statement. 

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In a statement released on Telegram on Sunday, the regional official said that the scene of the attack had not been possible to reach. 

The Russian attack was also reported by Lyudmyla Denisova, a Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman. 

“Today it became known about another terrible crime against humanity committed by the racist occupation forces — the shooting of 56 elderly people in Luhansk region,” Denisova wrote on her Telegram handle. 

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“In the town of Kreminna on March 11, the Russian occupiers cynically and purposefully fired from a tank at a home for the elderly,” Denisova added. 

Kreminna lies to the west of the towns of Rubizhne and Severodonetsk. The two towns are located in the eastern part of the country and have witnessed some of Russia’s most intense fury.