The presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and Kharkiv governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said Russian forces shelled a shop and a cafe in the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region at about 1 pm, according to an Associated Press report.
A six-year-old boy was among those killed in the attack, Syniehubov said, and one child was also among the wounded.
Local sources say the cafe was crowded because a memorial lunch was being held for a villager.
Earlier, Ukraine’s air force said that the country’s air defences intercepted 24 out of 29 Iranian-made drones that Russia launched at the southern Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions.
An infrastructure facility in the region was also reported to be struck and emergency services were deployed to extinguish a fire.
There were no casualties reported in that incident.
The attack came as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky arrived 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.
Death toll in Hroza rises to 48
Andriy Yermak, a spokesperson for Zelensky, says the death toll from the Russian strike in Kharkiv region is now 48.
Writing on X, he said,’A Russian missile hit a civilian object in the village of Hroza, Kupiansk district. So far, we know that 48 lives were lost, a 6-year-old boy among them. There are also 6 injured, including a young girl. Rescue operations are ongoing.’
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