Russian airstrike in Ukraine 'one of deadliest' since war began: UN rights office

The UN human rights office has called a Russian airstrike that killed 52 people in Ukraine on Thursday "one of the deadliest" since Moscow's war began.

"What is clear is that the strike is one of the deadliest since Feb. 24, 2022, but of course, it is far from being the only one," spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told a UN press briefing in Geneva on Friday.

Such an attack underscores once again "the terrible price civilians are paying," Throssell said on the attack, in "what appeared to be a Russian missile (that) struck a cafe in the (Hroza) village, where people had gathered for a wake" in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

The village is reportedly near no military or industrial targets.

"So far, our colleagues in the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) have established the names of 35 people who were killed-19 women, 15 men, and an 8-year-old boy, and the names of five women and one man who were injured," she said.

"One Ukrainian soldier who was attending his father's funeral was among those killed, according to the authorities."

Noting that before the war, the village's population was about 300, she said: "It is not clear how many residents were still living there, but it is clear that with the high number of people killed, everybody in this small community has been affected."

The rights office knows that at least eight families had more than one relative killed in the attack, she said.

She added: "We stress once again that international humanitarian law, in particular the rules on the conduct of hostilities, must be strictly respected."

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), also spoke on the subject, saying that the humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned the attack.

UN agencies and Ukrainian NGO partners are mobilizing assistance for civilians in the area including medical supplies and health support, shelter maintenance kits, non-food items, cash, and hygiene assistance as well as mental health and psycho-social support, Laerke underlined.

He noted that Brown is traveling to Hroza today to see firsthand how the humanitarian community can support the people affected.