Death toll from Russian strike on Hroza village rises to 53

This was reported by the police of the Kharkiv region.

On October 10, during a briefing, Deputy Head of the Kharkiv Regional Police Serhiy Bolvinov said that the number of residents of the village of Hroza killed by Russia had increased to 53 people, and 5 people are still missing.

Since October 5, investigators and forensic experts have been working around the clock to identify the victims. During this time, 288 DNA tests have been conducted.

According to Serhiy Bolvinov, the work is not yet complete, the examinations are ongoing. Everything is being done to speed up the process of transferring the bodies for burial. Today, investigators working with relatives, friends, and acquaintances of the victims have handed over 15 bodies.

"We have been collecting the remains of civilians killed by a Russian missile in the village of Hroza for five days now," said Serhiy Bolvinov. "We had to collect the mutilated bodies piece by piece, we have examined 135 remains, and we are still doing it.”

In total, the police received 22 reports of missing persons in the village of Hroza, 4 of which were not confirmed – the people were found, 13 people were identified among the recovered bodies. Currently, 5 people are still missing.

Serhiy Bolvinov spoke about each of the dead and reiterated that there were no military men, let alone high-ranking military officials, among those killed by the Russian Iskander missile strike. These are women and men, entrepreneurs, elderly. There were only civilians who came to commemorate their fellow villager.

"This is the largest, most massive tragedy that has resulted in so many people being killed by a single missile in the Kharkiv region," emphasized the head of the investigation department. "Investigators and forensic experts seized the remains of an Iskander-M missile at the scene of the tragedy, and we are inclined to believe that the Russian military cynically committed a war crime and killed so many civilians in the village of Hroza."

The work on identifying the bodies continues. According to Serhiy Bolvinov, the total number of dead may increase.

• On October 5, Russia attacked the village of Hroza, Kharkiv region, killing 52 people. A Russian missile hit a cafe where a memorial dinner was taking place at the time.

• The UN sent a team to investigate Russia's attack on Hroza.

• As of October 9, 49 bodies of Hroza residents had been identified.