The body of a man in a plaid sweater in a car with the windows blown out, his tattooed hand still gripping the steering wheel.

A woman’s purple manicure and gold rings visible while her body lies in a pool of blood on the ground.

These are just some of at least 25 civilians killed in an attack on a humanitarian convoy outside the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia on Friday.

The deadly attack came in the morning as hundreds of people waited in a line of vehicles to get into the Russian-controlled part of the region.

Getting permission to move between Kiev- and Moscow-held areas can be a lengthy process when families are separated by a moving frontline in a conflict that has ravaged Ukraine for the past seven months.

The strike came just hours before President Vladimir Putin declared four Ukrainian regions, including Zaporizhia, to be part of Russia in a lavish annexation ceremony in the Kremlin.

An AFP journalist at the scene saw bodies lying between damaged cars, with suitcases and handbags strewn nearby.

One man, 56-year-old Viktor, said his life was saved by leaving the line to find coffee.

“The waitress gave it to me, then there was a bang. She got scared and ran out. A few minutes later another one. Now she’s on the floor,” he said.

“I managed to hide. She did not make it.”

A few yards behind him lay the body of a young woman in a pink jacket, her leg twisted.

Another woman’s body lay face down.

Both were killed between two lines of cars, the front of a convoy hoping to return to parts of southern Ukraine under Russian control.

Drivers and passengers waited outside a logistics center for permission to cross, which Viktor said could take days or even weeks.

Another woman who survived and asked to use the pseudonym Katya said about 300 cars were waiting around 08:00 when the rockets hit.

Ukrainian security forces said three S-300 missiles hit the transit center and a small forest nearby.

Police inspected a large crater several meters deep near the line of cars.

AFP saw more than a dozen cars and vans damaged Friday afternoon, all with windows blown out.

The bodies of their former passengers, covered with a white sheet, were still inside.

A soldier opened the door of a minivan and first discovered a small dog that had been killed before pulling out the body of a man by his black jacket.

The remains of half a dozen victims in black body bags were placed in a nearby ambulance.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia “bloodthirsty scum” after the attack.

“Only consummate terrorists could do that,” said the Ukrainian leader.

His aide Kyrylo Tymoshenko spoke of an “inhumane” attack.

Moscow-backed forces claimed Kyiv was behind the attack.

At the makeshift logistics center near the line of cars, signs bore the names of cities under Russian occupation – Melitopol, Berdyansk and others that people in their cars had hoped to reach.

Moscow has held so-called “referendums” in the occupied territories, which Kyiv and the West have condemned as hypocrisy.

Katya, who was on her way to Moscow-held territory, said: “The referendum means nothing.”

“I’m Ukrainian, not Russian,” says the mother of two children who are cared for in Dnipro, a city under central Ukrainian control.

She said she was returning south to earn a living.

“I have no work anywhere else,” she said.