See the stunning images of Russia’s latest devastating missile strike

Ukrainian families all across the country are in mourning after a Russian missile attack on a village in the Kharkiv region left more than fifty-one people dead, including a child and a sixty-two-year-old woman according to officials. 

The Russian attack targeted a building that contained a cafe and shop in the village of Groza according to ABC News, which reported on a statement from Kharkiv’s Regional Prosecutor's Office regarding the details of the strike. 

One six-year-old boy was among the victims of the attack and six people were thought to still be missing according to Kharkiv’s Regional Prosecutor's Office. A large group of individuals had gathered in the area for a memorial. 

Individuals were mourning the loss of slain soldiers at the cafe when it was attacked by Russia. ABC News reported that the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office told the news agency the memorial only had civilians in attendance. 

Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Dymtro Chubenko provided several more details about the memorial service to the Ukrainian media outlet RBC according to CNN, which translated Chubenko’s remarks on the strike. 

The fallen soldier had been buried in the city of Dnipro after his death but was moved to the village by his relatives, who wanted the man’s final resting place to be at his original home rather than where he was previously laid to rest. 

“The wake was attended by the son of the deceased,” Chubenko said, noting he was a soldier as well. “The son, along with his wife and mother, were in a cafe and were killed by a rocket,” Chubenko added—though it would get worse.

CNN reported that roughly one-fifth of the village was killed in the air strike based on the death rolls. Groza only had a population of 330 people. This type of attack has occurred before, and it happened nearby according to Chubenko. 

The town of Pervomaiske also suffered a similar attack on people mourning the death of a soldier. However, at the Pervomaiske memorial, there had been other members of the slain soldiers unit present at the service for their friend. 

“His fellow soldiers were present then. Today, there were only civilians at the site of the attack,” Chubenko explained. What will happen next is still unknown but it is likely those still missing will eventually be pulled from the rubble.

President Volodymyr Zelesnky was quick to react to the air strike on Groza, which ABC News noted he described the attack as a “demonstrably brutal Russian crime.” He also went on to call the incident "a completely deliberate act of terrorism."

Zelensky was attending the summit of the European Political Community in Spain when the attack occurred and called on all Western nations for more aid, saying “Russia must be stopped” according to the Washington Post. 

“Russia needs this and similar terrorist attacks for only one thing: to make its genocidal aggression the new norm for the whole world,” Zelensky later wrote in a Telegram post according to a translation from the Washington Post. 

“Now we are talking with European leaders, in particular, about strengthening our air defense, strengthening our soldiers, giving our country protection from terror. And we will respond to the terrorists,” Zelensky added. 

However, no aid can help bring back those who were lost in the attack. The Associated Press spoke with Dmytro Nechvolot, who told the news agency that he was at the site of the incident waiting for confirmation of his father's death.  

“I have lost a man I looked up to, a beloved father, and an unforgettable grandfather,” he explained. It is a sentiment that families all throughout the region are likely feeling about a loved one that they lost in the senseless attack on Groza. 

Groza is about forty miles from Kupiyansk according to ABC News, which also reported that the building in the village was struck by an Iskander-M missile which produced the deadliest attack in the area since the beginning of the invasion. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By Vitaly V. Kuzmin - http://www.vitalykuzmin.net/Military/ARMY-2016-Demonstration/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52213498