According to Ukrainian authorities, 51 people, including a six-year-old child, were killed by Russian rocket fire in Hrosa, not far from the city of Kupyansk. Three people are missing after a store was shot at. At the time of the attack, many villagers gathered in a nearby cafe for a ceremony in memory of a deceased fellow citizen.
Minister: “All families” in the village affected
According to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, people “from all families” were present at the funeral. As a result of the Iskander rocket attack, people “from all families” in the village were injured. The worst Russian attack on the Kharkiv region since the start of the war destroyed a sixth of the village.
Ukraine: dead after attack on supermarket
Dozens of people were killed in an attack on a village near the city of Kupyansk, in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine. A Russian missile hit a supermarket.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office released photos and a video showing piles of rubble and people lying motionless on the ground. The attack occurred at 1:15 pm local time (12:15 pm CEST).
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“No blind attacks”
Rescue work was completed in the evening, it was said, and no other victims were found under the rubble. “This was a deliberate rocket attack on a village in the Kharkiv region, targeting a grocery store and a cafe,” Zelensky said. “The Russian military could not ignore the place where they attacked. This was not a blind attack.”
Attack condemned internationally
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell strongly condemned the Russian attack. “Russia’s horrific terror against Ukraine’s civilian population shows no sign of abating and reached another grim milestone today,” Borrell said. It is a heinous attack on innocent civilians. Intentional attacks on civilians are war crimes.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also made serious accusations against Moscow. “Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited by international humanitarian law and must stop immediately”, demanded Guterres through his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. This left no doubt that UN representatives viewed Russia as responsible for the attack.
Ukraine had already liberated the region around Kupyansk from Russian occupation last autumn, which has now been affected by the attack. At that time, the Oskil River was also crossed and Ukrainian troops partially advanced into the neighboring region of Luhansk. Kupyansk was an important supply center for Russian forces after the invasion. Meanwhile, Russian troops regained the advantage in the area and fighting in the east of the Kharkiv region intensified.
Child killed in Kharkiv
According to military information from Kiev, Russia has recently returned heavily to Ukraine with drone strikes and artillery fire. In the city of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, a ten-year-old boy died after Russian shelling of a residential building, authorities announced on Friday.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported on Friday that the country’s anti-aircraft defenses destroyed 25 of 33 Russian drones. Southern Ukraine, including the Odessa region, was once again affected. In the Danube region, among other things, a grain silo was damaged and several trucks caught fire. There were no injuries, it was said.
According to the General Staff in Kiev, more than 110 Ukrainian cities were under Russian artillery fire. Several Russian attacks were reportedly repelled.