Passengers On The Bus Struck By A Drone Have Returned To Rechitsa
- 18.06.2026, 8:19
One of them described the moment the UAV attacked.
Children and adults from the bus struck by a drone in the Bryansk Region have returned home to Rechitsa, BelTA reports.
Two children—her son Ivan and daughter Alexandra—were traveling on the bus that was struck with Natalia Murashko, a resident of Rechitsa. “I was in shock when I heard what had happened. My first question was whether the children were alive. Thank God, the children are alive,” the woman shared her emotions while waiting for the buses to arrive in Rechitsa.
She said that her son was the first of her children to get in touch, telling her that they were all fine.
“And when my daughter called and said they’d crossed the border, I was overwhelmed with emotion: thank God they’re home. Oh Lord, forget Gelendzhik—we’ll just relax on the Dnieper, here in Belarus with the kids,” — the woman added.
Oksana Bondarenko’s son, Vladislav , was also on his way to Gelendzhik. He wasn’t on the bus that was hit by the attack.
“I was at work when they called me and asked where my son was. I said, ‘He’s gone.’ And they replied, ‘Don’t you know what happened?’ And I just sat down. When they said they didn’t know which bus had been hit, it was just… (indescribable. — Ed.). It was a terrible day for me,” the woman wrote, describing her feelings.
“And when I heard my son’s voice from Bryansk, that was the most important thing—just to hear him. If something had happened to him, I would have blamed myself for the rest of my life,” the mother said, unable to hide her emotions.
A passenger on the stricken bus—a boy named Daniil—described the moment after the UAV attack.
“I saw that about three sections of the window were missing. They’d been blown out. And then they started helping the injured boys out. One boy’s face was completely covered in blood. A civilian man took one of them to the nearest hospital because he had lost consciousness for a few seconds. I was really scared,” said Daniil.
What is known about the tragedy involving a drone striking a bus
The tragedy occurred around 11:00 a.m. near the village of Rudnya, not far from the town of Pochep in the Bryansk Region—45 km from the border with Ukraine, with which Russia is at war. According to Russian officials, a drone struck the bus. There were 43 passengers on board. Eight people were injured, and one woman died—the wife of the coach at the Rechitsa Children’s and Youth Sports School No. 2, Viktoria Goroshko. Reportedly, she leaves behind two children.
Belarusian medical professionals and investigators have sent colleagues to the Bryansk region. The Investigative Committees of Russia and Belarus have opened criminal cases (in Russia, on charges of a terrorist attack). The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among other things, stated that “Belarusians are absolutely prohibited from traveling to conflict zones, areas of hostilities, and adjacent regions.”
The Ukrainian General Staff denies any involvement in the strike on the bus, emphasizing that “during the specified period, the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not use unmanned aerial vehicles against targets in the Bryansk region.”