Russian strike on village food shop in Ukraine, 51 killed

Kyiv, The Gulf Observer: A Russian rocket struck a village cafe and store in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 51 civilians in one of the deadliest attacks in the war in months, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials in Kyiv.

The attack came as Zelenskyy attended a summit of about 50 European leaders in Spain to drum up support from Ukraine’s allies.

He denounced the strike in the village of Hroza as a “demonstrably brutal Russian crime” and “a completely deliberate act of terrorism.”

Presidential chief of staff Andrii Yermak and Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said a 6-year-old boy was among the dead, adding that seven other people were wounded. Hroza, which had a population of about 500 before the war, is located in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

About 60 people were in the cafe, attending a wake after a funeral, said Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko, who provided the death toll.