Memorial to the Victims of the Strike on the Café, Hroza

closedas of 2026-10-012023Slobozhanshchyna

Photo: Toss12 · CC0 · source

On 5 October 2023 an Iskander hit a memorial meal — 59 people died, one in seven of the village's residents.

On 5 October 2023 at 13:25 the russian army struck the village café-shop in Hroza with an Iskander-M ballistic missile from the Rossosh area, where some 60–70 residents had gathered for a memorial meal for the reburied soldier Andrii Kozyr. 59 people died — all civilians; the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission confirmed 36 women, 22 men and one child; all were identified within six days with the help of mobile DNA laboratories. It was the deadliest strike on civilians in Ukraine in 2023: roughly one in seven residents of the village was killed. The investigation established that the strike was directed by collaborators — the brothers Volodymyr and Dmytro Mamon, who fled to russia; in July 2026 the SBU announced a notice of suspicion to the russian command. On the site of the destroyed café stands a memorial sign with crosses, photographs of the dead and benches to a design by the relatives, funded by donors.