At least 51 civilians have been killed including a six-year-old boy in a Russian rocket strike on a village store and cafe in eastern Ukraine, one of the deadliest attacks in recent months.
Thursday’s attack came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended a summit of around 50 European leaders in Spain to drum up support from the country’s allies.
Mr Zelensky denounced the attack on shops in the village of Hroza as a “demonstrably brutal Russian crime” and “a completely deliberate act of terrorism”.
Ukrainian media reported the missile struck a store near a cafe where a wake after a funeral was taking place. Body parts were strewn across a nearby children’s playground.
Interior minister Ihor Klymenko said 29 victims out of the 51 killed have been identified. A further six are injured.
Mr Klymenko was also quoted as saying there is “suspicion” a local resident alerted Vladimir Putin’s military to the area where the mass gathering was planned.
He also said preliminary findings suggest the village, which had a population of about 500, was targeted by a missile from a Russian Iskander ballistic missile system.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the strike was “horrifying”.
Ukraine’s defence ministry says there were no military targets at the site of the attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
In a post on social media site X, formally Twitter, it claimed Russia deliberately targeted the area during lunchtime “to ensure a maximum number of casualties”.
Ukrainian prosecutors released pictures showing bloodied bodies and emergency workers combing through the building’s smoldering debris.
Mr Zelensky urged Western allies to help strengthen Ukraine’s air defences, saying: “Russia needs this and similar terrorist attacks for only one thing: to make its genocidal aggression the new norm for the whole world,” he said.
“Now we are talking with European leaders, in particular, about strengthening our air defence, strengthening our soldiers, giving our country protection from terror. And we will respond to the terrorists.”
Presidential chief of staff Andrii Yermak and Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said a 6-year-old boy was among the dead.
The attack came as Mr Zelensky was in Granada in southern Spain to attend a summit of the European Political Community, which was formed in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
He met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to discuss efforts to secure lasting global support for his country.
He added: “Ukraine and the UK will continue and expand defence cooperation.
“We also discussed grain export routes and agreed on the need to protect freedom of navigation in the Black Sea.”
The president said in a statement posted on his Telegram channel: “The key for us, especially before winter, is to strengthen air defence, and there is already a basis for new agreements with partners.”
Last winter, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy system and other vital infrastructure in a steady barrage of missile and drone attacks, triggering continuous power outages across the country.
Ukraine’s power system has shown a high degree of resilience and flexibility, helping alleviate the damage, but there have been concerns that Russia will again ramp up its strikes on power facilities as winter draws nearer.
Mr Zelensky noted the Granada summit will also focus on “joint work for global food security and protection of freedom of navigation” in the Black Sea, where the Russian military has targeted Ukrainian ports after Moscow’s withdrawal from a UN-sponsored grain deal designed to ensure safe grain exports from the invaded country’s ports.
The Foreign Office cited intelligence suggesting that Russia may lay sea mines in the approach to Ukrainian ports to target civilian shipping and blame it on Ukraine.
“Russia almost certainly wants to avoid openly sinking civilian ships, instead falsely laying blame on Ukraine for any attacks against civilian vessels in the Black Sea,” it said, adding that Britain was working with Ukraine to help improve the safety of shipping.
Speaking in Granada, Mr Zelensky emphasised the need to preserve the European unity in the face of Russian disinformation and to remain strong amid what he described as a “political storm” in the United States.
Asked if he was worried that support for Ukraine could falter in Congress, the president stressed that his visit to Washington last month made him confident of strong backing by Joe Biden’s administration and senators.
Earlier on Thursday, Russia targeted Ukraine’s southern regions with drones. Ukraine’s air force said that the country’s air defences intercepted 24 out of 29 Iranian-made drones that Russia launched at the Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions.
