More than 50 people have died as a result of a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian village. This is one of the deadliest attacks in recent months.
This is one of the deadliest attacks of the Ukrainian war: on Thursday, at least 51 people died as a result of a Russian missile strike on the village of Groza in the Kharkiv region. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, people came under fire when they were gathering for a memorial service for a deceased neighbor.
Groza is located near the city of Kupyansk, close to the front line, and this area is regularly subjected to Russian shelling.
The attack occurred while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was attending the European Political Community summit in the southern Spanish city of Granada. This community was formed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelensky called this attack a "brutal Russian crime" and a "completely deliberate act of terrorism."
He urged Western allies to help strengthen Ukraine's air defense and stated that "Russian terror must be stopped."
The head of the presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, and the governor of Kharkiv, Oleg Synegubov, reported that among the casualties was a six-year-old boy, adding that six more people were injured.
Last winter, Russia launched strikes on Ukraine's energy system and other critical infrastructure, unleashing a continuous barrage of missile strikes and drone attacks that led to widespread power outages across the country. Ukraine's energy system demonstrated a high degree of resilience and flexibility, helping mitigate the damage, but there are concerns that Russia may intensify its attacks on energy facilities as winter approaches.
Zelensky noted that the summit in Granada would also focus on "joint work on global food security and the protection of freedom of navigation" in the Black Sea, where Russian military forces attacked Ukrainian ports after Moscow withdrew from a UN-sponsored grain deal aimed at ensuring the safe export of grain from the occupied country.
The UK Foreign Office cited intelligence suggesting that Russia may be laying sea mines in the approaches to Ukrainian ports to target civilian vessels and blame Ukraine for it.
"Russia almost certainly wants to avoid openly sinking civilian ships, instead falsely blaming Ukraine for any attacks on civilian vessels in the Black Sea," the department said, adding that the UK is working with Ukraine to enhance maritime security.
Speaking in Granada, Zelensky emphasized the need to maintain European unity in the face of Russian disinformation and to remain strong in the midst of what he called a "political storm" in the United States.
When asked if he was concerned that support for Ukraine might waver in the US Congress, the Ukrainian president emphasized that his visit to Washington last month had instilled confidence in strong support from both the Biden administration and Congress.
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