Law enforcement officers have identified those who gave the order when, on October 5, 2023, a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile struck a cafe in the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region, killing 59 civilians during a farewell ceremony for a Ukrainian defender. Five Russian military personnel have been notified of suspicion, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko reported on Friday on social media, writes UNN.
"People came to say goodbye to a Ukrainian defender. Russia deliberately killed 59 civilians. We have identified those who gave this order,"
As the Prosecutor General stated, on October 5, 2023, a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile struck a cafe in the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region. At that moment, memorial services were taking place there after the reburial of a fallen Ukrainian soldier.
"Russia did not strike a military facility or a strategic target. It deliberately attacked civilians. 59 civilians were killed, including an 8-year-old child. For a small village, this was a blow that took the lives of nearly every sixth resident," Kravchenko noted.
According to him, it has already been established that the coordinates of the civilian target were passed to the enemy by two local residents, who then fled to Russia. They have been previously notified of suspicion.
"But our task was to identify not only the perpetrators on the ground, but also the entire chain of criminal decision-making," he added.
Inspection of the scene, 3D scanning, analysis of missile fragments, determination of its flight trajectory, identification of the launch site, and conducting over 180 forensic examinations, Kravchenko stated, "made it possible to fully reconstruct the mechanism of this war crime."
The investigation has identified specific Russian military personnel who participated in the preparation and execution of the missile strike. According to the investigation, intelligence chief Rear Admiral Oleksii Petrushyn received information about the location of civilians. After his report, Deputy Commander Vice Admiral Serhii Pinchuk proposed launching a missile strike. The final decision was made by Chief of Staff Colonel General Oleksii Kim. The organization of the execution was ensured by Deputy Chief of Missile Forces Colonel Dmytro Kozlovsky, and the direct launch of the missile was carried out by servicemen of the 119th Missile Brigade under the command of Colonel Ivan Petrov
Under the procedural guidance of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, the Prosecutor General noted, "all five have been notified of suspicion of violating the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy."
"For the Russian army, such crimes are part of the war. For us, these are specific criminal proceedings, specific names, and specific accountability. No missile strike on civilians will remain without identified perpetrators and commanders. We are documenting each such crime step by step so that the guilty answer not only before history, but also before the court. Justice takes time. But it will definitely come. We continue to work," Kravchenko emphasized.