The United Nations has urged Russia to take responsibility for the deadly strike on a funeral reception in a Ukrainian village on October 5, that left 59 civilians dead.
The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a report that a Russian Iskander missile — a short-range precision-guided ballistic weapon — probably caused the blast in the Ukrainian village of Hroza. The report pointed to debris and damage at the scene as grounds to believe Russia was responsible for the strike.
The attack on Hroza, which killed 36 women, 22 men and an 8-year-old boy, was one of the deadliest strikes since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The Russian Federation is urged to acknowledge responsibility for the civilian casualties resulting from the attack, to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the attack to hold those responsible to account and prevent similar attacks from happening in the future, and to provide access to remedy, including reparations, for direct and indirect victims,” the U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner said in a statement.
The U.N. report said Russia had "either failed to undertake all feasible measures to verify that the intended target was a military objective rather than civilians or civilian objects, or deliberately targeted civilians or a civilian object."
Either explanation is a violation of international humanitarian law, the report said.
Russia has not directly addressed the strike, though Russia's U.N. ambassador, told the U.N. Security Council that "a high-ranking Ukrainian nationalist" and "a lot of neo-Nazi accomplices" were at the wake.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia made comments Tuesday regarding the report.
Russia has repeatedly claimed it does not target civilians.
Family of 9 killed
Ukraine said a family of nine was shot and killed in their home in the Russian-occupied eastern town of Volnovakha.
Photographs of the home issued by authorities depict a gruesome crime scene, with the victims lying in their beds amid blood-splattered walls.
The Ukraine-backed prosecutor’s office in Donetsk province, home to Volnovakha, said the murders occurred after the owner refused a demand by a group of men in military uniforms to vacate the house so Russian forces could stay there. The office said the victims include two young children.
Russian investigators said two soldiers from Russia’s Far East are being held in connection with the murders. The soldiers had signed contracts with Russia’s military to serve in Ukraine.
Volnovakha was occupied by Russian forces shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions took over government buildings in 2014 and proclaimed the regions as independent "people's republics." The move followed Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
The murders come as Ukrainian and Russian troops are engaged in a fierce standoff in eastern Ukraine as the war stretches into its second year.
Russian forces have launched a new offensive campaign around the city of Bakhmut, especially near the strategic town of Avdiivka.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive begun in June has made slow progress, recapturing several hundred square kilometers of territory.
