Ukraine says Russian strike kills 50 in one of the deadliest attacks of the war
A Russian missile strike killed at least 50 people in a village near the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk on Thursday, officials say, in what would be one of the deadliest attacks against civilians since the conflict began.
Moscow’s forces targeted a cafe and a shop in Hroza, in the Kharkiv region, soon after midday local time (5 a.m. ET), according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
Scenes emerged of emergency workers wading through dense rubble in the aftermath of the attack. Doctors are treating the six people injured by the strike.
The bodies of the deceased, including a 6-year-old boy, were removed from the destroyed infrastructure, Oleh Synehubov, a regional military official said. The bodies of 29 victims have been identified, the Ukrainian interior minister said. The other bodies were sent to facilities in the city of Kharkiv.
There were locals inside the store when the missile ripped through, Ukraine’s interior minister said, triggering a scale of devastation not seen since an attack on a railway station in Kramatorsk in early 2022 killed at least 50 people.
At least one person from every family in Hroza had congregated in the cafe on Thursday for a wake, Klymenko added. According to the latest death toll, the attack wiped out about one fifth of the village, which was home to 330 people.
“This is a terrible tragedy for Ukraine. Yet another terrible war crime committed by the Russians, for which they must be held accountable,” he said.
The facility was hit by an Iskander missile, according to Ukrainian officials. The Iskander is a ballistic missile with a relatively short range, that depending on configuration carries a warhead of between 500 and 700 kilograms.
It has been extensively used by the Russians against Ukraine, causing substantial civilian casualties.
‘Demonstrably brutal’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack was “a demonstrably brutal Russian crime – a rocket attack on an ordinary grocery store, a completely deliberate terrorist attack.”
“Russian terror must be stopped. Anyone who helps Russia circumvent sanctions is a criminal. Everyone who still supports Russia is supporting evil,” Zelensky said on the sidelines of a European leaders summit in Granada, in southern Spain.
“Russia needs this and similar terrorist attacks for one thing only: to make its genocidal aggression the new normal for the whole world.”
Ukranian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal called the attack “brutal and cynical.”
“Dozens of people were killed, including a child. It is impossible to describe this horror in words,” he posted on Telegram.
“We must stop the Russian terror so that enemy missiles and shells do not take any more lives or injure any more people. This can only be done in a coordinated and united manner, with the help and support of our partners,” Shmyhal added.