By Olha Chepil | 2025-09-25

Lines are becoming lethal. In Ukraine, standing in line for a pension, boarding a train or shopping at a market can carry the same risk as walking near the front.

Social services and civilian gathering spots are increasingly being singled out by Russian forces -- not by mistake, but as part of a deliberate campaign of intimidation, experts say. Pension queues, humanitarian aid centers and train stations have all become systematic targets.

"This is a strategy meant to intimidate and wipe out the population," Yuriy Shirokov, a volunteer who delivers aid to frontline areas, told Kontur.

Yarova massacre

On September 9, a Russian aircraft dropped a KAB-250 aerial bomb on the village of Yarova in Ukraine's Donetsk region, striking a mobile branch of Ukrposhta, Ukraine's national postal service, as pensions were being distributed. The blast killed 25 people and wounded 19, most of them elderly residents waiting in line for payments.

The village, eight kilometers from the front, faces near-daily shelling. Volunteers said the postal truck was hidden under trees, but the effort failed.

"Just at that moment there was a line of local residents, mainly of retirement age," Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, told Kontur.

Shirokov added that the payout had been announced on Telegram, drawing villagers from nearby settlements.

"They came from two villages at the same time, 20 people from each one,” he said.

Eyewitnesses compared the aftermath to a mass execution.

"There were many fatalities here -- more than 20. Everyone was lying there, I was walking around and looking for passports, I was laying out everything because people were taking photos to identify who was where," Olha, a Yarova resident, told the Ukrainian National Police.

Olha lost her 72-year-old husband in the strike as he went to collect his pension. She said she plans to leave Yarova after burying him.

Vitaliy, 64, also decided to evacuate after his wife was killed.

"We were together for 25 years," he told police. "The day before yesterday she went to the center of Yarova for her pension, there was a strike, and she died. I've decided to leave. I'm taking my two cats and my dog."

Residents say life in the village is now impossible without evacuation.

On September 9, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack as "a brutally savage Russian airstrike … directly on people. Ordinary civilians. At the very moment when pensions were being disbursed."

Ukrposhta said it will change pension distribution procedures in frontline regions to reduce risks of future attacks.

Civilians in the crosshairs

Experts say the Yarova strike reflects a broader Kremlin strategy: hitting places where civilians inevitably gather -- markets, train stations, pension lines and aid centers.

"These are territories that plainly have no connection to the war," Ihor Reiterovich of the Ukrainian Center of Social Development told Kontur. He said the goal is to terrorize civilians and pressure them to demand an end to the war "on any terms."

Such attacks are frequent. In April, missiles hit the historic center of Sumy during church services, killing 35, including children. In 2023, a missile struck a market in Kostiantynivka, killing 17 and wounding more than 30. In the Kharkiv region, Russian forces shelled a café during a funeral meal in Hroza, killing 52, among them a 6-year-old.

"This is simply blunt terror," Reiterovich said. "Since nothing is working for them, to a great extent this is happening out of weakness."

Frontline facilities offering basic services are especially vulnerable. Mobile post offices and aid distribution points draw groups of elderly residents who cannot evacuate quickly.

"An attack on a location where basic services are provided is aimed at sowing fear and chaos, and demoralizing Ukrainians, especially in the frontline regions," said Bratchuk.

Now, many residents are afraid to go to markets, ride public transport or collect pensions.

"The Russians are first of all striking stores, clubs and schools -- places where people gather," said Shirokov.

"They're deliberately destroying the infrastructure and services that keep daily life running in the frontline regions," Bratchuk added. "Yarova is just one link in this chain."

War crimes pursuit

International law, including the Geneva Conventions, prohibits attacks on civilians and civilian assets not tied to military objectives. Such strikes constitute war crimes, according to the United Nations, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and independent OSINT investigative groups.

"Every strike on civilians is an act of intimidation and a violation of international humanitarian law," said Reiterovich. He added that the attacks amount to indiscriminate strikes on nonmilitary targets.

Evidence is forwarded to the International Criminal Court, while reports and strike maps are made public. The investigations seek to prosecute individual perpetrators and document Russia's broader strategy of targeting civilian gatherings.

"These actions are war crimes by Russia against Ukraine's civilian population," said Bratchuk. "The plan is to hold them accountable under both international and Ukrainian law. I hope that eventually there will be a trial for the war criminals."