The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has confirmed that the missile strike on the village of Groza in the Kharkiv region on October 5th was carried out by the Russian army, and all 59 casualties were civilians. This information is stated in a report published by the OHCHR.
The OHCHR has sufficient grounds to believe that the explosion in the café was caused by a missile strike from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as noted in the report.
"The explosion occurred in an area controlled by Ukraine, approximately 50 kilometers from the front line. <...> The analysis of the extent of the damage and the remnants of munitions found at the scene also indicates that the explosion was likely caused by an 'Iskander' missile, a high-precision, short-range guided ballistic missile produced by the Russian Federation and widely used by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in attacks on Ukraine," the report states.
The OHCHR also noted that the timing of the attack, the use of precision-guided munitions, and subsequent claims by representatives of Russian authorities that the funeral was a legitimate military target "compellingly indicate that the planned objective was struck as a result of the attack.
Another argument supporting this version, according to the OHCHR, is that the 'Iskander' missiles are in the arsenal of the Russian armed forces, and Ukraine does not possess such complexes and munitions.
Previously, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Igor Klimenko, stated that the casualties in the village of Groza as a result of the missile strike were civilians. "All the victims are local residents. Pensioners, medical professionals, farmers, teachers, entrepreneurs. All of them were civilians. Entire families spanning multiple generations perished," he noted.
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Meanwhile, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, claimed that at the moment of the strike on the café in the village of Groza, there were "many neo-Nazis" present. He also asserted that in the photos from the scene of the tragedy, which were posted on social media immediately after the attack, "almost all the bodies belong to men of draft age."
The strike on the village of Groza occurred on October 5, 2023. It targeted a shop and a café where, at the time of the attack, a memorial service was being held for a Ukrainian soldier, Andrey Kozyr, who had died in combat a year earlier. Ukraine's Security Service identified two suspects who may have helped guide the rocket attack. They are 30-year-old Vladimir Mamon and his younger brother, 23-year-old Dmitry Mamon, both of whom previously served in the Ukrainian police but switched sides to support Russia during the occupation of the Kharkiv region.
