On October 5, 2023, the Russian army shelled the village of Groza, Kupyansk district, Kharkiv region. The blow came at a rural cafe shop. 59 people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy.
Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office reported the death of actually half of the local residents who remained in Grozh at that time.
Russian propaganda media manipulated the Ukrainian president's trip to the EU summit in Spain, calling the shelling of the village of Groza “background for Zelensky's statements about the Russian threat.”
“The village of Groza, Kupyan district. Memories were held in the cafe. As we can see, Zelensky could not go to the “Western partners” without a presentation in Spain.
Information agency “Notepad”:
“On October 5, around 13.15 cafes and shops in the village were shelled. Thunderstorm of the Kupyansk region. Almost immediately there was information about 49 dead. It is striking that the blow was dealt when Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in Granada (Spain), proving to Western countries that Russia is a threat to the whole world, so we need to give money for weapons to Ukraine. Under similar circumstances, 17 people were killed in early September at a bazaar in Konstantinovka: there was a missile strike against the background of a visit to the country by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Soon, the United States said that irrefutable evidence of the murder of civilians of the Armed Forces was found.”
The shelling of the village of Groza is the case when Russian propaganda could not decide which version to follow. For along with denying its guilt, the Russian media suggested, citing “some experts”, that the strike could have been carried out by Russia.
“However, some experts believethat the attack was inflicted by Russia. For 99% of the dead were men of conscription age. And the grocery store, they say, is not a store for a long time - it was where the Ukrainian military was based. According to this version, the fact that about 50 people died, which means that there were much more in the building. Why suddenly there were almost a hundred people in a village shop on a working day, most of them men? To understand, the population of s. Thunderstorm — 500 people. So many of their men of conscription age have never been there,” he suggests “Notepad”.
The statements of Kremlin officials also differed. They could not agree on who was in the cafe: civilians or neo-Nazis?
Some promoted the message that there were Ukrainian soldiers in the cafe, but it was fired from the Ukrainian side in order to blame Russia.
Information agency “Notepad”:
“Russia commented on the missile strike on the Thunder of the Kharkiv region. The statement was made by the official representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzya.
“As you know, during the strike there were commemorations of one of the high-ranking Ukrainian nationalists. It is clear that many of his accomplices — neo-Nazis — took part in them. It is no coincidence that in the photos on social networks published immediately after the blow, almost all the bodies belong to men of conscription age. We have encountered such situations more than once. The Kiev regime broke its hands behind those killed as a result of attacks on hostels, cafes, shops and so on, and then obituaries appeared about the destruction of mercenaries. This is a “random coincidence”. We do not exclude that this will happen with the Thunderstorm,” he commented, without confirming the fact of involvement in the attack of the Russian Armed Forces.
Others, such as the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the strike on the Thunderstorm, stated that “the Russian Armed Forces do not attack civilian objects of Ukraine, but work on objects of military infrastructure.”
Both Russian propaganda and officials were united in one thing - not to confess to the crime committed to the end.
Residents of the village of Groza gathered that day for a memorial dinner for the deceased soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the National Police of Kharkiv region, he died in 2022, was buried in Dnipro, and then was reburied in his native village.
“He was not a high official.and did not occupy high ranks in the Armed Forces. He was a local resident and died near Popasnaya, - said the Head of the Investigative Department of the National Police in Kharkiv region Sergey Bolvinov in a comment Radio SvobodaAll of them were killed by a Russian missile. These are ordinary people. Pensioners, teachers, doctors, friends. All the dead and injured are civilians. Among them there is not a single dead or wounded serviceman,” Bolvinov added.
Later, the SBU established that the shooters of the Russian Iskander missile on the village were two local collaborators, brothers Vladimir and Dmitry Mamona. However, after the deoccupation of the village, they fled to Russia.
IN reportThe UN monitoring mission notes that the missile strike on the village of Groza, which killed its residents - civilians - was caused by the Russian army.
“The report was based on informationcollected and verified by experts of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, who carried out two fact-finding missions in the Thunder on October 7 and 10. They examined the scene of the explosion, interviewed 35 people, including local residents, witnesses, two survivors, medical staff and morgue workers,” the report said.Voice of America“.
The consequences of the arrival at the cafe in the village of Groza were recorded by Ukrainian photographer from Kharkiv Yakov Lyashenko.
“One of the most difficult moments during the shooting was when the phone of the deceased person rang. Documents, phones, things they found — gathered in one place,” Jacob shared with UAPP.
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