Russian missile attack on memorial service was no blind strike, says Zelensky

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that a Russian missile attack that killed 51 people in a Ukrainian village was “no blind strike”.

“A deliberate missile strike on a village in Kharkiv region on an ordinary store and cafe,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address, delivered while attending a summit of the European Political Community in Spain.

“Russian troops could not have been unaware of where they were hitting. This was no blind strike.”

Residents in the Kharkiv village where 49 have been killed in a Russian attack had been gathered for a memorial service at the cafe that was hit by shelling, Ukraine’s interior minister has said.

Ihor Klymenko said that residents of the small village of about 330 people had been holding a memorial service in the cafe that was hit.

“From every family, from every household, there were people present at this commemoration. This is a terrible tragedy,” Klymenko told Ukrainian television.

One of the deadliest Russian attacks on civilians has taken place today, when a Russian missile struck a village cafe and store in the small village of Hroza in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 51 civilians attending a memorial service.

Here is a long list of some of Russia’s deadliest strikes since invading last February:

Nearly 50 European leaders have used the European Political Community summit in Spain to stress that they stand by Ukraine, at a time when resolve appears to be weakening in some Western nations.

In attendance at the summit, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that beside maintaining such unity, more military aid to get through the winter was essential and warned now was not the time to waver in the face of the threat from Russia.

“Europe must be strong” despite what happens in other places like the US, Mr Zelensky said, calling on leaders to provide more air defence systems, artillery shells, long-range missiles and drones. Victory or defeat in Ukraine would determine the fate of all of Europe, he added.

Even if the European Union promised to continue its support for Kyiv, it could never replace Washington’s contribution if funds were to dry up there, the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has said.

“Certainly we can do more. But the US is something irreplaceable for the support of Ukraine,” Mr Borrell said at the European Political Community summit in Granada.

That was a worry lingering over the third meeting of the forum, after the US Congress hastily agreed upon stopgap legislation last weekend which kept the federal government funded, but left out billions in funding for Ukraine’s war effort which the White House had vigorously backed.

With the future of such aid called into question by a key faction of Republicans, Mr Biden called other world powers on Tuesday to co-ordinate on Ukraine in a deliberate show of US support.

Vladimir Putin has claimed that hand grenade fragments were found in the bodies of people who died in the crash of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane in August.

Experts investigating the crash – involving Prigozhin and two of his top lieutenants, among seven others – found no indication the private jet had suffered an “external impact” before crashing during its journey from Moscow to St Petersburg, the Russian president claimed.

There was no way to independently verify Mr Putin’s claims.

A preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the crash, and Western officials have pointed to a long list of Putin foes who have been assassinated. The Kremlin called allegations he was behind the crash as an “absolute lie.”

A Russian investigation was launched but no findings have been released. Moscow rejected an offer from Brazil, where the Embraer business jet was built, to join the inquiry.

Slovakia’s outgoing caretaker government will not send more military aid to Ukraine for now, prime minister Ludovit Odor has been quoted as saying on the sidelines of the Granada summit, instead leaving it to the next administration following last weekend’s election.

The election was won by three-time leftist prime minister Robert Fico’s Smer-SSD party, with pledges to stop military aid to Ukraine, but to continue sending humanitarian and reconstruction aid. It is seeking coalition partners to form government in the coming weeks.

Before falling apart last year, the country’s previous centre-right government was a staunch backer of Ukraine and supplied various military gear, including fighting vehicles as well as an S-300 air defence system and MiG-29 jets.

Mr Odor’s technocrat government had continued help for Ukraine, with which Slovakia shares a border.

“I believe that a government will be formed that will be pro-European and will continue to help Ukraine,” he said on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit, according to the Tasr news agency.

“In what form will depend on the government, but I do not think that, at the least, anyone will stop the commercial part of aid,” he said, adding there was no consideration of stopping weapons deliveries from private companies.

Germany is working on the supply of an additional Patriot air defence missile system to Ukraine in the winter months, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

“This is what is most necessary now – to ensure air defence with this highly efficient system,” Scholz said after the first day of the EU Political Community summit in Granada, Spain.

The German chancellor said Russia would try to threaten Ukraine‘s infrastructure and cities again this winter with missile and drone attacks, and that is what made the air defence system a priority.

“We must of course ensure that there is no escalation of the war and that Germany does not become part of the conflict,” Scholz said.