A minibus from Odesa collided with a truck in the Mykolaiv region: nine dead

Nine people were killed and eight others were injured when a bus traveling from Odesa collided with a truck.

This was reported by the press office of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Mykolaiv region.

A report that a traffic accident had occurred on the “Odesa-Melitopol-Novoazovsk” highway between the villages of Krasne and Nechayane was received on July 4, at approximately 7:40 a.m. According to preliminary information, the driver of a Mercedes Sprinter minibus—which was traveling from Odesa to Mykolaiv with passengers on board—veered off the road, causing the vehicle to roll over and veer uncontrollably into the oncoming lane, where it collided with a Volvo truck.

Investigators from the Department for Investigating Transportation Crimes of the Regional Police Headquarters’ Investigative Directorate are working at the scene. Patrol officers are directing traffic and ensuring the safety of other road users.

Poor road conditions led to 23 traffic accidents in the Odesa region in 2025, placing the region fifth in Ukraine in terms of this metric. In the Mykolaiv region, there wereeight such accidents, while analysts have no data for the Kherson region. However, the Lviv region led the country in the number of traffic accidents caused by poor road conditions, with 73 such accidents occurring there last year. Kyiv came in second with 63 accidents caused by road conditions, Ternopil Oblast was third with 29 accidents, and Kyiv Oblast was fourth with 27. 

On the morning of June 7, 2025, on the Odesa-Mykolaiv highway, near the village of Malovarvarivka in the Mykolaiv district, a traffic accident occurred in which four people were injured. And in 2024, the Odesa region was among the top three regions with thehighest number of traffic accidents caused bydrunk drivers—7,073 citations—second only to the Dnipropetrovsk region (8,745) and Kyiv (8,176). 

Кирило Бойко