Death toll from Hroza missile strike rises to 59, Ukraine says

[October 12, 2023]  KYIV (Reuters) - The death toll from a missile strike on the village of Hroza in northeastern Ukraine has risen to 59 after police finished identifying the victims, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Thursday.

Ukraine said a Russian missile hit a cafe in the village in the Kharkiv region last week as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Moscow denies targeting civilians in its full-scale invasion, a position it repeated in response to a question at a Kremlin briefing about the strike on Hroza. 

Family and relatives attend the funeral of Iryna Kharbaka and Oleksandr Khodak who were killed in a Russian missile attack, amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, at the village cemetery, in the village of Hroza, near Kharkiv, Ukraine October 9, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

"The Russians killed 59 people with a direct hit with an Iskander (missile) on the village of Hroza," Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

"All victims are local residents. They were pensioners, medics, farmers, teachers, entrepreneurs. All were civilians. Entire families of several generations died."

The toll is one of the biggest among civilians in any single Russian strike in nearly 20 months of the war.

Forensic experts worked round the clock for six days to identify the victims. They needed mobile DNA laboratories to identify 19, and one person - a 60-year-old man - was identified only after 20 body parts were collected, Klymenko said.

Ukraine's SBU security service has accused two villagers who it said had fled to Russia of helping guide the missile strike.

The Czech Foreign Ministry will summon Russia's ambassador over the attack on Hroza, CTK news agency reported on Thursday.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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