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Putin hypersonic rocket blitz on supermarket kills at least 51 including boy, 6, in ‘worst civilian slaughter of 2023’
MORE than 50 people including a six-year-old boy were killed in a devastating Russian attack on a supermarket in Kharkiv.
A cafe and shop in the village of Hroza were reduced to rubble in what is believed to be one of the worst civilian slaughters of the entire war in Ukraine.
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Shocking pictures show rescue workers scrambling to find survivors in the smouldering rubble.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that around 60 residents of the small village had been holding a memorial service in the cafe that was hit.
At least 51 have been confirmed dead so far including a boy of six, while a further seven were injured, officials said.
Moscow is said to have used an Iskander ballistic missile in the horrifying strike.
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"From every family, from every household, there were people present at this commemoration. This is a terrible tragedy," Klymenko said.
The attack is the deadliest in the Kharkiv region since Russia's invasion more than 19 months ago, a spokesman for the Kharkiv regional military administration told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.
It also appeared to be one of the biggest civilian death tolls in any single Russian strike since the start of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in the region earlier this week, slammed the strike and branded it a "terrorist attack."
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The Ukrainian leader, who is currently in Spain, said: "The brutal Russian crime of hitting an ordinary grocery store with a rocket is a completely deliberate terrorist attack.
"My condolences to everyone who has lost family and friends. Assistance is provided to the wounded."
Hroza, which has a population of around 330, is located in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
The village and other parts of the region were seized by Russia early in the war and recaptured by Ukraine in September 2022.
Zelensky had been pictured visiting frontline troops in Kharkiv just two days before the attack.
He continued: “Russian terror must be stopped. Everyone who helps Russia circumvent sanctions is a criminal.
“Everyone who still supports Russia supports evil.
“Russia needs this and similar terrorist attacks for only one thing: to make its genocidal aggression a new norm for the whole world.
“And I thank every leader, all people who support us in protecting life.”
Zelensky said Ukraine was urgently talking with European leaders about strengthening air defences to give “our country protection from terror.
"And we will respond to terrorists.”
Meanwhile in the Kherson region, two medics were injured after Russia blasted a hospital.
The fourth floor of the medical facility in Beryslav was completely destroyed and another was partially destroyed, according to reports.
Emergency service vehicles were also damaged in the strike.
The blasts follow a horror attack in the city of Chernihiv in March, where 33 civilians lost their lives.
Terrifying dashcam footage caught the moment Russian bombs flew overhead and slammed into a block of flats.
Another deadly missile strike in June left ten people dead after a hit on a restaurant.
14-year-old twin sisters were among the victims of the attack in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine.
A Russian double-tap missile strike on a hotel and restaurant in August left several people dead and 88 wounded.
The deadly blasts struck 40 minutes apart injuring dozens of first responders who raced to pull survivors from the rubble.
Vlad also targeted Zelensky's hometown over the summer as a massive strike in Kryvyi Rih killed eleven people and left many trapped under the rubble.
Multiple casualties were reported in the Mariupol theatre bombing but the number has not been confirmed.
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The historic building which was being used as a safe haven from Russia's relentless shelling of the city, was brutally blitzed by Putin's troops last March.
Satellite images showed the word "children" written in large white letters in Russian outside the front and back of the building, the Maxar space technology company said.
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