A UN official said the attack needed further review.
Geneva:
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) deployed a field team on Friday to investigate an airstrike on the Ukrainian village of Hroza that killed at least 52 people.
A rocket struck a cafe and a supermarket in the village on Thursday as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier. OCHR said it was likely fired by Russia, but it was too early to say for sure.
“The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, who has seen firsthand the horrific impact of such strikes, is deeply shocked and condemns these killings,” OHCHR spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva.
“He has sent a field team to the site to speak to survivors and gather more information.”
Following the attack, three days of mourning were declared in the Kharkiv region, the deadliest in the region since the Russian invasion more than 19 months ago. It was also one of the highest numbers of civilian casualties in a single Russian attack.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians, but many have been killed in attacks that hit residential areas, energy, defense, port, grain and other facilities.
“At this stage it is obviously very difficult to establish with absolute certainty what happened,” said Elizabeth Throssell.
“But given the location, given the fact that the cafe was hit, and the indications are that it was a Russian missile.”
However, she added that the attack needed further review.
“It is absolutely clear that there has been a terrible loss of life, and that is of course regrettable in all circumstances.”
Elizabeth Throssell said OHCHR’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has identified the names of 35 people killed in the strike, including 19 women, 15 men and an eight-year-old boy.
“Before the Russian invasion, the village had a population of about 300,” said Elizabeth Throssell. “It is not clear how many residents were still living there, but it is clear that everyone in this small community has been affected by the high number of deaths.”
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