UN rights office says Russia behind deadly Hroza strike

GENEVA, Oct 31 (Reuters) – The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday it had found « reasonable grounds » to conclude a missile strike that killed 59 people in a cafe in the Ukrainian village of Hroza was launched by Russia.

The findings were published in a report based on two fact-finding missions to Hroza by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), where it interviewed 35 people, including local residents, witnesses, two survivors, medical staff and morgue employees.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said « there are reasonable grounds to believe that the missile was launched by Russian armed forces. »

She added: « There was no indication of military personnel or any other legitimate military targets at or adjacent to the café at the time of the attack. »

Ukraine said a Russian missile hit a cafe in the village in the Kharkiv region on Oct 5 as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Moscow denies targeting civilians in its invasion, a position it repeated in relation to the strike on Hroza.

Russia’s defence ministry didn’t immediately comment on Tuesday’s report.

« Russian armed forces either failed to do everything feasible to verify that the target to be attacked was a military objective, rather than civilians or civilian objects, or deliberately targeted civilians or civilian objects, » the OHCHR report said.

« Either scenario would be in violation of international humanitarian law, » Throssell said.

The report said the weapon likely used in the attack, the Iskander missile, is in the arsenal of the Russian armed forces but not in that of Ukraine.

« We urge the Russian Federation to conduct a full and transparent investigation to hold those responsible to account and to take measures to prevent similar attacks from happening in the future, » Throssell said.

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