Russian strike kills 51 gathered for wake in east Ukraine

AFP | Groza                                   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A Russian strike killed at least 51 people gathered for a wake in northeastern Ukraine Thursday, provoking outrage from Western leaders for what the UN warned could be a war crime.

The mourners for a fallen Ukrainian soldier had gathered at a cafe in the village of Groza, in the Kharkiv region.

People who had been in a shop in the same building were also killed in the attack on the small village, which had a population of 330 people.

A spokeswoman for the regional assembly, quoted by Ukrainian media, said it was the single deadliest attack since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.

AFP journalists at the scene of the aftermath saw blackened and dismembered bodies spread out on the ground opposite the ruins of the cafe.

Police and soldiers loaded white body bags of unidentifiable bodies onto trucks that would take them to Kharkiv, where forensic experts would carry out DNA searches.

"My son was just found without a head, without arms, without legs, without anything. They recognised him from his documents," Volodymyr Mukhovaty, 70, told AFP.

His wife and daughter-in-law were also attending the wake and although he had "little hope" of finding them alive, he watched rescue workers from a distance, just in case.

"I lived with my wife for 48 years," he said. "I will not last long alone."

- Six-year-old victim -

A six-year-old child was also among the victims, said Interior Minister Igor Klymenko, who added that a total of 60 people had been attending the memorial service.

The soldier, whose wake it was, had been killed a month after Russia invaded. He had been buried in the southern city of Dnipro -- away from his home village, then under Russian occupation.

He was reburied in Groza on Thursday morning.

His wife and son, also a soldier, were both killed in the strike, a spokesman for the regional prosecutor's office was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Groza is located around 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the frontline town of Kupiansk, an area Russian forces have been pushing to recapture since they lost the territory to Ukrainian troops last year.

Klymenko said initial evidence showed an Iskander missile had been used.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was attending a European summit in Spain, said he had no doubts that the strike had been deliberate.

"The Russian military could not fail to know where they were hitting," he said.

"It was not a blind strike."

Zelensky also said he had secured agreements from several countries to provide Kyiv with more air defence systems and artillery.

"We will have more air defence -- there are clear agreements," he said. "This is very important before winter. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain -- thank you!"

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had announced that Berlin would supply Kyiv with a new Patriot air-defence system.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock later posted on X, formerly Twitter: "As long as bombs hail on supermarkets and cafes, we do everything for #Ukraine to protect itself from Putin's missile terror".

Denise Brown, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, called the attack "absolutely horrifying", stressing that "intentionally directing an attack against civilians or civilian objects is a war crime".

- 'Depravity' -

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the strike "demonstrated the depths of depravity Russian forces are willing to sink to", according to a spokesperson.

Large swathes of the Kharkiv region, including Groza, were captured by Russian forces in the early days of their invasion launched in February last year.

Ukrainian forces recaptured much of the border territory during a lightning offensive late last year, but the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, still comes under regular shelling.

Zelensky's advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said the attack had "no military logic".

"This is a reminder to anyone who is willing to smile and shake hands with war criminal (Russian President Vladimir) Putin at international conferences," he said.

"Putin's Russia is a true evil".

Meanwhile, Moscow said overnight that it had destroyed eight Ukrainian drones in western Russia's Kursk and Belgorod regions, but made no mention of any casualties.