A missing family of four Ukrainians were killed by an anti-tank mine blast near the frontline, the National Police department in Luhansk Oblast reported on April 11.
A couple, both 57, their 38-year-old son and his wife, also 38, from the village of Pischane in Stanytsia Luhanska district of Luhansk Oblast, were reported missing by their neighbor on April 7. A few days later, the police found their damaged car near Siversky Donets river, which divides Ukraine-controlled territories in Luhansk Oblast from Russian-occupied areas.
Police said the family drove over an anti-tank mine, and the resulting explosion killed all four. Initially, the investigators classified the incident as homicide, but changed it to a terrorist act.
Stanytsia Luhanska is the only checkpoint through which people can travel into the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast. As the Kyiv Post reported earlier, every day about 10,000 citizens use the partially destroyed bridge over the Siversky Donets river to cross between the territories.
Once a combat hot spot of Russia’s war in the Donbas, Stanytsia Luhanska remains a dangerous place even after the fighting has died down. According to Ukraine’s defense ministry, thousands of unexploded shells and landmines are scattered along the front line in the area.
