Ukrainian officials said Thursday a Russian attack on a village in the northeast of the country killed at least 48 people and injured at least six more. Presidential chief of staff Andrii Yermak and Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces shelled a shop and a cafe in the village of Hroza, in the Kharkiv region, around 1pm, the AP reports. A 6-year-old boy was among those killed in the attack, Syniehubov said, and one child was also among the wounded. Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky says the "brutal Russian crime" killed people in a grocery store, the BBC reports.
Earlier, Ukraine's air force said that the country's air defenses intercepted 24 out of 29 Iranian-made drones that Russia launched at the southern Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kirovohrad regions. The attack came as Zelensky traveled to Spain to rally support from Western allies at a summit of around 50 European leaders. Zelensky arrived in Granada on Thursday to attend a summit of the European Political Community, which was formed in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"The key for us, especially before winter, is to strengthen air defense, and there is already a basis for new agreements with partners," he said in a statement posted on his Telegram channel. Last winter, Russia targeted Ukraine's energy system and other vital infrastructure in a steady barrage of missile and drone attacks, triggering continuous power outages across the country. Zelensky noted the summit will also focus on "joint work for global food security and protection of freedom of navigation" in the Black Sea, where the Russian military has targeted Ukrainian ports after Moscow's withdrawal from a UN-sponsored grain deal designed to ensure safe grain exports from the invaded country's ports.
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