Russian Strike Kills Nearly 50 In Ukraine, President Says

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says a Russian strike in northeastern Ukraine killed nearly 50 people.

At least 49 people, including a six-year-old boy, were killed when Russia targeted a grocery and a cafe in the Kharkiv region on Thursday, according to authorities.

President Zelensky said on the social media platform Telegram that the latest attack was a “brutal Russian crime” and “a completely deliberate act of terrorism.”

Kharkiv region governor Oleh Synehubov said many civilians were present when Russia hit the shop and cafe in the village of Hroza in the Kupyansk district of Kharkiv.

“The rescuers continue to work on the site,” Synehubov said on Telegram.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the bloodiest known strike involving civilians in months, and it underscored the rising death toll in the ongoing war.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied deliberately striking civilian targets despite mounting evidence, including footage and eyewitness accounts, that seem to suggest otherwise.

URGING WESTERN SUPPORT

Zelensky urged Western allies to help strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses, saying “Russian terror,” like on Thursday, “must be stopped.”

Russia, he said, “needs this and similar terrorist attacks for only one thing: to make its genocidal aggression the new norm for the whole world.”

He added, “Now we are talking with European leaders, in particular, about strengthening our air defense, strengthening our soldiers, giving our country protection from terror. And we will respond to the terrorists.”

Thursday’s strike underscored the mounting death toll since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. Hundreds of thousands are believed to have been killed or injured in Europe’s worst armed conflict since World War Two.

Earlier Thursday, Russia targeted Ukraine’s southern regions with drones, though no causalities were reported. Ukraine’s air force said that the country’s air defenses intercepted 24 out of 29 Iranian-made drones that Russia launched at the Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kirovohrad regions.

Andriy Raykovych, head of the Kirovohrad regional administration, said that an infrastructure facility in the region was struck, and emergency services were deployed to extinguish a fire. He said nobody was killed or injured in the attacks.

However, in other Russian strikes on Ukraine in the past day, two civilians were killed in shelling of the southern city of Kherson, and another one died after a Russian strike on the town of Krasnohorivka in the eastern Donetsk region, officials said.

RUSSIANS HIT HOSPITALS

At least eight people were wounded by Russian shelling, according to Ukraine’s presidential office.

A Russian strike on a hospital in the city of Beryslav in the Kherson region ravaged the building and wounded two medical workers, added the regional administration chief, Oleksandr Prokudin.

Ukraine, in turn, has struck back at Russia with regular drone attacks across the border, Russian authorities say.

Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region that borders Ukraine, said that Ukrainian drones attacked infrastructure facilities in several areas, resulting in power cuts.

Starovoit also told media that Ukrainian forces fired artillery at the border town of Rylsk, wounding a local resident and damaging several houses.

The attacks come amid mounting international concern that the war will continue at least into the new year with no signs of serious peace talks between the warring factions.

Latest Worthy News