All 59 victims of the Oct. 5 Russian strike on the village of Hroza in Kharkiv region have been identified, according to Ukrainian officials. Photo courtesy of Volodymyr Zelensky
Regional officials on Thursday increased the final death toll from last week’s strike in the village of Hroza in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region to 59.
Ukrainian Minster of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram that police criminologists had identified all of the victims, adding that they were all civilians. Advertisement
“59 people were killed by the Russians with a direct hit on an Iskandar in the village of Hroza. All the victims are local residents. Pensioners, doctors, farmers, teachers, entrepreneurs. All of them are civilians. Whole families died in several generations,” Klymenko wrote.
Some of the victims could only be identified via DNA tests.
“19 people were identified using mobile DNA laboratories. For six days, police criminologists took samples from relatives around the clock, displayed profiles and looked for a match of fragments. One of the dead, a 60-year-old man, was identified by forensic experts on 20 parts of the body,” Klymenko said.
Two victims had to be identified by objects that were found in their homes “as they did not have relatives of the direct line to compare DNA profiles.”
On Wednesday, the SBU, Ukraine’s internal security service, said two brothers from Hroza had collaborated with Russian forces to conduct the strike. Advertisement
“The perpetrators were two local residents, 30-year-old Volodymyr Mamon and his younger brother, 23-year-old Dmytro Mamon and his younger brother, 23-year-old Dmytro Mamon,” the SBU said Wednesday.
