Missile that killed 59 people in Groza was Russian - UN
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report saying there are rational grounds to believe that the rocket that hit a cafe building in the village of Groza on 5 October was fired by the Russian military.
As a result of a Russian missile hitting a cafe in the village of Groza on 5 October, 59 people were killed. This was reported by the UN.
on 5 October, a missile hit a cafe in the small village of Groza in eastern Ukraine, killing 59 people attending a funeral.
The UN emphasised that it was one of the deadliest incidents for civilians since February 2022.
'Today we are publishing a report on the events of 5 October, which concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the missile was launched by Russian armed forces and that there was no indication of the presence of military personnel or any other legitimate military targets in or near the cafe at the time of the attack,' it said.
The report is reportedly based on information collected and verified by experts from the Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, who conducted two missions to the village of Groza on 7 and 10 October.
They inspected the site of the explosion and interviewed 35 people, including local residents, witnesses, two survivors, medical personnel and morgue staff.
The dead - 36 women, 22 men and an eight-year-old boy - were all civilians attending a wake after the funeral of a local resident who was an AFU soldier. The explosion completely destroyed a cafe and a small shop.
The report details the devastating effects of the Groza missile strike, with 15 families losing two or more family members.
The report says that the Russian military either failed to do everything possible to verify that the target was a military objective or deliberately targeted civilians or civilian objects. Either option would be a violation of international humanitarian law.
We call on the Russian Federation to conduct a full and transparent investigation to bring those responsible to justice and to take measures to prevent similar attacks in the future. We also call on the Russian Federation to provide the victims and their families with access to effective remedies, including appropriate reparations," the UN said.
The full report can be read at the link.