The cafe and shop in the Ukrainian village of Hroza were hit by a rocket during a memorial service – Special

Valerij Kozyr bends down and pulls up roots and branches from the soil. He stands in the graveyard in his village. The face of the 61-year-old man is filled with grief and despair. The day before, the daughter and son-in-law were killed when the cafe and shop in the village of Hroza was hit by a rocket. CLEANING: Valerij Kozyr tries to prepare the grave of his daughter and son-in-law who were killed when a rocket hit the cafe in the village. Hroza, Kharkiv Oblast. Photo: THOMAS PETER / Reuters Now he is trying to clear space for a new grave. They should lie here, says Valerij and points. At one point, he is unable to stay on his feet. He collapses. Knees to the ground. Hands in front of face. His three grandchildren have lost their mum and dad. The rocket hit the cafe A day earlier, Valerij is at home with his wife Ljuba. The garden is full of flowers and abundant fruit trees, but the leaves are starting to turn yellow. Autumn is on the march in the small village, located in the east of Ukraine, in Kharkiv county. The grandchildren aged 10, 14 and 17 are visiting. They are often with their grandparents. Daughter Olha (36) and son-in-law Anatolii (41) live next door. SORROW: The married couple Ljuba and Valerij sit on the bench outside the house. The day before, the daughter and son-in-law were killed when a rocket hit the village cafe. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news It is extra quiet in the village this day. Many of the citizens have gathered at the local cafe to participate in a memorial service for a dead soldier, who was killed earlier in the war. There is also the daughter and son-in-law. Olha has helped prepare the food. Anatolii has known the soldier since childhood. KILLED: Anatolii Panteleiev (42) and his wife Olha Panteleieva (36) were killed in the attack on the village of Hroza, in eastern Ukraine. Photo: Alex Babenko / AP Valerij would have liked to also take the trip, but has chosen to stay at home. The timing is bad. He’s going to be on night duty. Suddenly the silence is broken by a violent explosion. Valerij is filled with horror. He immediately understands what has happened. He rushes out, gets on his bike and heads for the café, a short kilometer away. The sight that meets him is terrible. EXPLODED: The shop and cafe in Hroza was the heart of the Ukrainian village. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news The cafe is blown to smithereens. Bricks and corpses lie on the ground. Valerij finds his son-in-law dead with a splinter in his back. The daughter is also killed. The face is broken. But Valerij knows that it is Olha. He recognizes her red apron. I suspect that someone has tipped off about the commemoration The attack on the cafe in Hroza on 5 October is one of the bloodiest against civilians so far in the war in Ukraine. Facts about the deadliest attacks on civilians during Russia’s war in Ukraine * Hroza, October 5, 2023: A rocket slammed into a cafe and a shop in the village of Hroza in Kharkiv Oblast. At least 52 people were killed. Many of the victims were gathered for a memorial service for a deceased villager when the attack took place. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russian forces attacked with an Iskander missile. * Kostjantynivka, September 6, 2023: At least 16 people were killed in an explosion at a busy market in the eastern city of Kostjantynivka in Donetsk Oblast. According to Ukraine, the explosion was caused by a Russian rocket, but the New York Times newspaper has reported that the explosion may have been caused by a rocket mistakenly fired by Ukrainian forces. * Kramatorsk, June 27, 2023: A rocket hit a pizza restaurant in the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk, killing 13 people, including two 14-year-old twin sisters. * Uman, April 28, 2023: At least 23 civilians were killed, including six children, when a high-rise building was hit by a rocket in the central Ukrainian city of Uman in Cherkasy Oblast. Many were injured in the attack, which destroyed a large number of apartments. * Slavyansk, April 14, 2023: Rockets slammed into apartment buildings in the Donetsk city of Slavyansk, killing 15 people and causing serious damage. Slavyansk was hit as Russian and Ukrainian forces battled for control of the nearby town of Bakhmut. * Dnipro, 14 January 2023: An apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro in Dnipropetrovsk county was hit during a major rocket attack. At least 45 people were killed. * Zaporizhzhya, September 30, 2022: Up to 32 civilians were killed and nearly 100 wounded in a rocket attack on a convoy of cars on the outskirts of the southern city of Zaporizhzhya. The column was preparing to leave a Ukrainian-controlled area to visit relatives and deliver supplies in a Russian-controlled area. Pro-Russian officials blamed Ukraine for the attack. * Vinnytsia, 14 July 2022: Cruise missiles hit the center of the city of Vinnytsia, killing 27 people. According to Ukraine, the attack was carried out with rockets fired from a submarine in the Black Sea. * Chasiv Yar, July 9, 2022: A rocket hit an apartment block in the eastern city of Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut. Emergency services put the death toll at 48 after a five-storey building collapsed during the attack. * Odesa, July 1, 2022: Rockets hit an apartment building and two holiday camps in the Black Sea region of Odesa, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more. * Kremenchuk, June 28, 2022: A rocket fired from a bomber hit a busy shopping center in the center of Kremenchuk in Poltava Oblast, far from the front, killing at least 20 people and wounding 59. * Kramatorsk, April 8, 2022: A rocket attack took the lives of 61 people at a train station in Donetsk county packed with women, children and the elderly fleeing the threat of a Russian offensive in the east. * Mariupol, 16 March 2022: A theater where hundreds had sought shelter in the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine was bombed. The exact death toll is disputed, with estimates as high as 600. Amnesty International has stated that at least 12 people were killed, but that the number was likely much higher. Russia denied that it was behind the attack, but Amnesty has refuted this. Source: NTB, Reuters Ukrainian authorities say they have now identified 59 people after the cafe was hit by a Russian Iskander-M missile, according to Ukrainian authorities. Dozens were injured. Almost half of the inhabitants of the small village in eastern Ukraine were wiped out in the attack. Before the explosion on Thursday, between 100 and 200 remained, residents estimate. MURDERED: Under a blue blanket, rescuers have collected the remains of the last victim found. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news But how could a rocket hit the small cafe at the exact moment when people were gathered for a memorial service? Could someone have tipped off the Russians about the memorial service? The day after the explosion, several people in the village had no doubts. – Probably someone has passed information on. It became known a month ago that there would be a memorial service. Many people knew, says Ljuba. CONDEMN: – I call the Russians fascists. That is the truth, says Ljuba after the explosion in her village. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news Immediately after the explosion, the police started their investigation. The next day they had a clear theory. – We see it as likely that someone among the civilian population has passed on information, possibly a resident of the village, said investigator Soima Dmytro INVESTIGATOR: The police suspect that a resident tipped off the Russians about the memorial service. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news This week the investigators believe they know what happened. Suspect two brothers They have found the answer by eavesdropping on conversations on social media. Extensive documentation points in one direction, the prosecutor’s office in Kharkiv announced on Wednesday. Ukrainian police believe that a married couple, Vladimir Vova Mamon (30) and Dmitryj (23) have given information to the Russian defense forces, which made it possible to direct a rocket at the cafe in Hroza on 5 October. Vladimir or Vova Mamon is named as the mastermind behind the attack on the Ukrainian village of Hroza on 5 October. Photo: The Ukrainian security service SBU It will not be the first time the brothers have collaborated with the Russians. When Russian forces took control of large parts of Kharkiv county in the spring of 2022, the two brothers are said to have chosen to cooperate with the occupiers. They became what are often called collaborators. Vladimir is said to have received a separate certificate from the Russian authorities that said he held a position as a driver for the Provisional Police, which the Russian authorities established in the areas they controlled. The brother should also have received such a certificate, but his position was defined as a kind of traffic constable, according to documentation from the Ukrainian security service, SBU. But the Manon brothers had probably miscalculated the situation. Russia’s control of Kharkiv Oblast was relatively short-lived. Vladimir Mamon received a Russian passport shortly after he had fled to Russia in September 2022. Photo: The Ukrainian Security Service SBU In September 2022, the Ukrainian army struck back in a lightning offensive, which stunned the whole world. The Mamon brothers had to hastily pack up what they had. Together with their family, they fled, according to the Ukrainian authorities, across the border to Russia. From there, they have kept in touch with acquaintances in Ukraine via, among other things, social services such as Messenger. Helpers on the ground And it is these contacts that the Ukrainian police believe prove that it was Vladimir Mamon who was actively behind the collection of information that enabled the Russian defense forces to send the rocket at the cafe in Hroza with great precision. Mamon had been in contact with acquaintances in the area who could tell that there would be a memorial service at the cafe, to remember a soldier from the town who had lost his life in the war. REMEMBER: Candles lit in memory of those who were killed in the cafe last Thursday Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news Possibly Mamon thought that this would be a gathering of soldiers. But it wasn’t like that. It was all a purely civil arrangement. But through contact with his brother, Vladimir Mamon was able to pass on to the Russian defense the exact time and place of the memorial event. This communication with a local resident is the main evidence of the Ukrainian security service SBU. It shows, according to the SBI, that Mamon obtained accurate information about when the memorial service for the dead soldier was to take place. The Ukrainian authorities therefore point to the two Mamon brothers as the main characters behind what happened. For more than a year they have stayed on Russian territory. But they have had good helpers on the ground inside Ukraine, which is clear from the transcripts from Messenger that the Ukrainian Security Service has now submitted. BLOODY: A shoe remains in the grass after the explosion. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news The day after the attack, the Russian authorities denied that they were behind the attack. – We repeat: The Russian military does not attack civilian targets. Attacks are carried out only against military targets, in places with military personnel, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Half the village killed At home with Valerij and his wife Ljuba, the grief is unbearable. – Half the village is gone, says Valerij. KILLED: – Everyone who could was at the memorial service. There were no strangers there. I knew everyone, says Valerij. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news Valerij looks at his mobile phone. – Now I have to delete half of my contacts. The grandchildren are with the neighbours. They are strong, says grandmother Ljuba. BURIED: New graves have been made ready in the village of Hroza after the explosion on Thursday. Photo: Alex Babenko / AP Several new graves have been prepared at the village cemetery. At the weekend, the first funerals were underway. The UN has sent a special team to the village to investigate the attack on civilians. – Everyone is affected. Most people here have known each other all their lives. Now the village is changed forever, says Valerij.



ttn-69