The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has deployed a field team to investigate the deadly attack in a village in Kharkiv.
This comes a day after the incident occurred.
On Thursday, October 5, 2023, a Russian missile struck a cafe and grocery store in Hroza, a village in the Kupiansk district of the northeastern region of Kharkiv.
Oleh Synehubov, Governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, disclosed on Friday, October 6, 2023, that the death toll from an air attack on the village of Hroza has risen to 52.
He said that the latest victim died overnight while being treated in hospital, adding that some of the survivors have injuries that are “quite serious.”
Elizabeth Throssell, an OHCHR spokesperson said, the team will speak to survivors and gather information from the site of the attack in the village of Hroza.
“The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, who saw for himself the horrific impact of such strikes, is profoundly shocked and condemns these killings,” she said.
The office of UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, condemned the strike earlier , noting that “attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
Throssell also noted that the attack was likely caused by a Russian missile.
She said, at this stage, it is “very difficult to establish with absolute certainty what happened.”
“But given the location, given the fact that the cafe was struck, the indications are that it was a Russian missile,” she added.
A three-day period of mourning was announced in the Kharkiv region after the attack, which was also one of the biggest civilian death tolls in any single Russian raid since the February 2022 invasion.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov responded to Ukraine’s claims by saying that its military does not strike civilian targets.
Russian Air Strike Kills Boy
Less than 24 hours after the attack on Hroza village, a Russian air attack hit the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Friday.
The attack killed a 10-year-old boy.
According to Ukraine’s Interior Minister, the attack also damaged several buildings on a busy street in Kharkiv.
Kharkiv regional Governor, Oleh Synyehubov said in a Telegram message that the number of injured has risen to 26.
Later, the mayor of Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv confirmed a second fatality from the early morning Russian bombardment.
In a Telegram message, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that the remains of a woman, in her late 60s, were recovered from the rubble of a building that was destroyed by the attack on Friday.
He also said that 12 of the 26 people who were reported injured remain hospitalised, although their condition remains unknown.
Meanwhile, separate strikes by Russia in Ukraine’s Kherson damaged several residential buildings and shops in the central part of the city.
According to a Ukrainian government message on Telegram, the windows of the buildings and shops were smashed in the overnight shelling.
There were no immediate reports on casualties.
Also, at least two people have been injured and several buildings damaged in several areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk after Russian attacks in the last 24 hours.
In a Telegram message, acting Donetsk region Governor Ihor Moroz said one person was injured in a district called Novomykhailivka and another in Pleshchiivka.
Several houses across multiple districts in the region were also damaged by massive artillery shelling as well as aerial attacks overnight and on Friday morning, the message added.
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