50 killed in Ukraine cafe strike as Zelenskyy seeks stronger backing

KYIV, October 5

A Russian attack killed 50 persons, including a six-year-old boy, in a village in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said.

Kharkiv region Governor Oleh Synehubov said a cafe and a shop had been attacked in the afternoon in the village of Hroza in the Kupyansk district of Kharkiv and that many civilians were there at the time.

“Rescue is underway at the site,” Synehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Officials posted footage of rescue workers clambering through smoldering rubble. Bodies lay alongside slabs of concrete and twisted metal.

It was not immediately clear whether Russian forces, who invaded Ukraine 19 months ago, had shelled the village or had fired a missile.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was attending a summit with European leaders in Spain, said “the Russian terror should be stopped”.

“Now we are talking with European leaders, in particular, about strengthening our air defence, about strengthening our soldiers, about giving our country protection from terror,” he said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. — Reuters

Need to push Russia out of our territories

The presence of Russia, its military or proxies in the territory of any other country is a threat to all of us. We must work together to push Russia out of the territory of other countries. — Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President