Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has said a Russian missile attack that killed 51 people at a memorial service was “no blind strike” and that Russian troops could not have been unaware of where they were striking.
A Russian missile slammed into a cafe and shop in a village in northeastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing 51 people in Hroza village in the eastern Kharkiv region.
The attack – thought to have been carried out using an Iskander ballistic missile – appears to have caused one of the biggest civilian death tolls in any single Russian strike.
“One-fifth of this village has died in a single terrorist attack,” said regional Governor Oleh Synehubov.
Mr Zelensky, who was attending a summit with European leaders, said: “Russian troops could not have been unaware of where they were hitting. This was no blind strike.”
Separately, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was forced into a major retreat from a Crimea port, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War. At least 10 of Vladimir Putin’s warships retreated 237 miles to “bases further in the Russian rear” following intensified Ukrainian attacks.