A strike by Russian forces on Thursday, October 5, resulted in the tragic loss of at least 51 lives during a gathering for a funeral in an eastern Ukrainian village. A United Nations official described this attack as “horrifying.”
A Russian strike killed at least 51 people gathered for a wake in an eastern Ukrainian village Thursday, in what a UN official called a “horrifying” attack.
Journalists on the scene in the aftermath saw rescuers carrying a corpse from the rubble and several charred bodies in civilian clothes lying side by side, and others in white body bags.
The mourners were in a café and there were also victims in a shop in the same building in the village, which has a population of 330 people, in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
There were piles of body parts next to two children’s swings nearby while under flood lights, rescuers were still digging through the rubble of what was left of the cafe.
Groza is located more than 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the frontline town of Kupiansk in an area where Russian forces have been pushing to recapture territory they lost to Ukrainian troops last year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was attending a European summit in Spain, condemned the attack on social media.
Regional authorities had recently ordered mandatory evacuations in the area after an uptick in Russian strikes.
Large swathes of the Kharkiv region 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 to regular shelling.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
