White House blames Moscow for killing dozens of innocent people, while British PM speaks of ‘depravity’ of Russian forces

The White House has condemned the attack on a cafe and grocery store in Ukraine’s Hroza village that killed 51 people, as “horrifying”, while British prime minister Rishi Sunak said the strike “demonstrated the depths of depravity Russian forces are willing to sink to”, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

In a briefing before the death toll rose, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Let’s stop and think about what we’re seeing: 49 innocent people who were killed by a Russian airstrike while they were shopping for food at a supermarket. That’s what they were doing.

At least 51 killed in missile strike during village wake service; European leaders rally around Zelenskiy amid US funding uncertainty

At least 51 people including a six-year-old boy were killed during a missile attack on a cafe during a wake service in a village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said. According to preliminary findings, Russian targeted the cafe with an Iskander ballistic missile, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Ihor Klymenko, said.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused Russia of “genocidal aggression” after the attack. He described it as “a demonstrably brutal Russian crime – a rocket attack on an ordinary grocery store, a completely deliberate act of terrorism”, later saying it was “no blind strike”.

European leaders rallied around the Ukrainian president in the face of US jitters over defence funding. The gathering at the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Granada, Spain, gave leaders including the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, a chance to restate their commitment to Ukraine after political turbulence in the US and Europe raised questions about continued support.

Germany will “do everything possible” so that Ukraine can protect itself from Russian missiles, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Thursday after Moscow’s latest deadly strike in Ukraine. “More than 50 people dead in Hrosa,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter. “As long as bombs hail on supermarkets and cafes, we do everything for Ukraine to protect itself from Putin’s missile terror.”

The Biden administration is considering using a US State Department grant program to send additional military aid to Ukraine, Politico reported on Thursday citing two US officials with knowledge of the discussions.

Slovakia will not send more military aid to Ukraine for now, prime minister Ľudovít Ódor said. Instead, the decision will be delayed until a new government is formed following last week’s election, which saw a victory for Robert Fico, a populist, pro-Russian three-time former prime minister who campaigned on a promise to end military aid to Ukraine.

The US president, Joe Biden, wants to give a “major” speech on support for Ukraine, the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, without specifying when that would happen. She described the Hroza missile attack as “horrifying”.

Vladimir Putin ramped up his nuclear rhetoric, saying his country had successfully tested the nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable Burevestnik strategic cruise missile, as he suggested Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades.

Putin also suggested that the plane crash that killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in August was caused by hand grenades detonating inside the aircraft, not by a missile attack. “Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash. There was no external impact on the plane – this is already an established fact,” he said.

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• Russia-Ukraine war: what we know at a glance

Two people were killed in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office said on Thursday.

Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff, said on Telegram that one of the dead was a utility worker who trimmed trees.

Rishi Sunak urges allies to arm Ukraine in party conference speech; Victoria Roshchyna has not been heard from since 3 August, says International Women’s Media Foundation

• What we know on day 588 of the invasion

A Russian court has sentenced the former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you”, to eight and half years in jail in absentia on Wednesday.

Ovsyannikova was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces”, according to a statement posted by the court on Telegram.

Ukrainian drones attack three Russian regions overnight, Moscow says; UK PM calls on west to help Ukraine ‘finish the job’

Dozens of Ukrainian drones attacked three Russian regions overnight, according to the Russian ministry of defence, which claimed to have shot down 31 unmanned aircrafts. However, there are reports that a drone struck a Russian air defence system in the Belgorod oblast.

The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, urged western allies to continue supporting and arming Ukraine so it can “finish the job” against Russia. His comments come as US aid to Ukraine remains uncertain after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. Before yesterday’s vote, McCarthy had avoided government shutdown by pushing to pass a US government funding bill that excluded support for Kyiv, leaving Joe Biden to rely on the Republican speaker for a separate deal. Yesterday, Admiral Rob Bauer, Nato’s most senior military official, warned that western military powers are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine. “The bottom of the barrel is now visible,” Bauer said.

Ukraine’s navy said on Wednesday that 12 more vessels were ready to enter a Black Sea shipping corridor on their way towards Ukrainian ports, and that 10 other vessels were ready to depart from the country’s ports. Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk made his remarks as Ukraine tries to defy a de facto Russian blockade on Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea after Moscow pulled out of a deal in July that had allowed Kyiv to safely export grain.

A Russian court has sentenced in absentia the former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you” to eight and half years in jail on Wednesday. Ovsyannikova was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces”, according to a statement posted by the court on Telegram. Ovsyannikova, 45, fled Russia with her daughter for an unspecified European country a year ago after escaping from house arrest, according to her lawyer, saying she had no case to answer.

Ukrainian police recorded 15 Russian war crimes in relation to strikes on several locations in Kherson oblast. One strike in a residential quarter of Antonivka killed a 54-year-old man and injured seven other local residents, aged from 27 to 77, were injured. Russian forces then shelled Antonivka again in the evening, wounding a 61-year-old man.

Ukraine increased its road shipments of agricultural goods in September, according to Spike Brokers, a commercial agent broker on the grain and oil market of Ukraine. In September, 514,000 metric tons of agricultural goods were exported by lorries, while in August, 506,000 tons were exported. The increase is still down from the year before, which saw 639,000 tons in September 2022.

A fire broke out at the Rusal-owned Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter early on Wednesday, Russia’s Tass state news agency reports, citing local emergency ministry officials. “At 08.57am (1.57am GMT) a fire was reported on the territory of the KrAZ (Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter),” the agency cited the officials as saying. “A transformer caught fire on an area of 50 sq metres (538 sq ft).” It was not immediately known what caused the fire. Rusal is the largest aluminium producer outside China.