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UKRAINE

One dead as coach carrying Ukraine refugees crashes in Italy

A mother of two was killed when a bus carrying Ukrainian refugees overturned on a motorway near Bologna on Sunday morning.

Published: 13 March 2022 12:11 CET
Updated: 13 March 2022 16:59 CET
An ambulance driver waits as vehicles line up outside the main emergency access at a hospital in Italy.
Illustration photo of ambulances waiting outside a hospital in Italy. Photo: ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP

The 32-year-old woman and her two children, aged 10 and five, were among 22 people onboard escaping the war in Ukraine, according to Italian newspapers.

The woman died at the scene and her children were taking to Bufalini hospital with bruises. They have been hospitalised as doctors give them psychological support, according to reports in Italian media.

Video footage shot by emergency services showed the bus on its side in a ditch by a road southeast of Bologna following the early morning incident.

The accident occurred on the highway between Cesena and Rimini, on the north eastern coast. Pictures posted by the fire fighters on Twitter show the bus had overturned.

The bus landed on its side on a grassy slope just beyond a highway guardrail and near a farm field beside the A14 motorway at about 6.30am on Sunday. Firefighters used two cranes to set the bus upright and remove it.

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.  

35,000 Ukrainians refugees who fled war in their homeland have entered Italy, most of them through its northeastern border with Slovenia.

What caused the bus to overturn is under investigation.

READ ALSO: Russian invasion: What has Italy’s response been so far?

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UKRAINE

Italian deputy PM Salvini calls France’s Macron ‘danger’ for Europe

Italy's deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, accused French President Emmanuel Macron Saturday of endangering Europe by refusing to rule out sending Western ground troops to Ukraine.

Published: 24 March 2024 09:38 CET
Italian deputy PM Salvini calls France's Macron 'danger' for Europe

The comments by Salvini, whose far-right League party is a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition government, came during a gathering in Rome of right-wing and nationalist European leaders to rally support ahead of EU parliamentary elections in June.

Macron’s suggestion last month that Western ground troops could be sent to Ukraine was “extremely dangerous, excessive and out of balance,” Salvini told the event organised by the European Parliament’s Identity and Democracy political group.

“I think that President Macron, with his words, represents a danger for our country and our continent,” Salvini said during his speech, which largely stressed conservative family values.

“The problem isn’t mums and dads but the warmongers like Macron who talk about war as if there were no problem now,” he added.

“I don’t want to leave our children a continent ready to enter World War Three.”

READ ALSO: Macron says ground operations in Ukraine possible ‘at some point’

Portugal’s Andre Ventura, leader of Portugal’s far-right party Chega that surged in a general election earlier this month, also spoke at the event, as did Harald Vilimsky of the Freedom Party of Austria and former US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, among others.

France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen did not personally attend, instead sending a video message.

The outspoken Salvini, who serves as transport minister, is a hardline populist whose comments have often landed him in hot water.

Earlier this month, he responded to the Russian election result by saying: “When a people vote, they are always right”.

Following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny last month, he said it was “up to Russian doctors and judges” to determine the cause.

Salvini has previously expressed his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Macron’s comments last month in which he refused to rule out putting troops on the ground in Ukraine prompted a stern response from Berlin and other European partners.

 
 
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