Kyiv - Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko announced on Thursday that the death toll resulting from a missile strike on the village of Hroza in northeastern Ukraine has now reached 59, following the completion of victim identification by the police.

Last week, Ukraine asserted that a Russian missile had struck a café in the Kharkiv region's village of Hroza, where people had gathered to commemorate a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Moscow continues to deny allegations of targeting civilians during its full-scale invasion, a stance reaffirmed during a Kremlin briefing regarding the Hroza strike.

Ihor Klymenko conveyed on the Telegram messaging app, "The Russians caused the deaths of 59 individuals through a direct impact from an Iskander missile on the village of Hroza. All the victims were local residents, including pensioners, medical professionals, farmers, teachers, and entrepreneurs. They were all civilians, and whole families spanning multiple generations perished."

This death toll stands as one of the highest among civilian casualties resulting from any single Russian strike in the nearly 20 months of the ongoing conflict.

Over a span of six days, forensic experts tirelessly worked to identify the victims, even necessitating the use of mobile DNA laboratories for the identification of 19 individuals. Remarkably, one person, a 60-year-old man, could only be identified after collecting 20 different body parts, according to Klymenko.

Ukraine's SBU security service has accused two villagers, who it claims have fled to Russia, of assisting in guiding the missile strike on Hroza. 

In response to the attack on Hroza, the Czech Foreign Ministry is reportedly summoning Russia's ambassador, as reported by the CTK news agency on Thursday.

News Courtesy Reuters