Alleged “neo-Nazis” in Hrosa
Russia justifies attack on village with 52 deaths at UN
October 9, 2023, 10:14 p.m
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Last week there was a devastating attack in a village near Kupyansk, leaving many dead civilians who had gathered there for a funeral service. Now a Russian ambassador is justifying the attack at the United Nations.
After the Russian attack on a funeral service in the eastern Ukrainian village of Hrosa, in which 52 of the approximately 300 villagers were killed, Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, offered a cynical justification for the attack. “As is known, the funeral of a high-ranking Ukrainian nationalist was taking place there at the time of the attack. Of course, many of his neo-Nazi accomplices were also present,” said Moscow’s representative to the UN, referring to the victimswho, according to Ukrainian information, were all residents of Hrosa.
Nebensja went on to claim that “in the pictures posted on social media immediately after the attack, almost all of the bodies were of men of military age” – although this was obviously a lie. According to consistent media reports, entire families were wiped out in the attack. Among the dead were many elderly people, women and an eight-year-old child. A baby was also seriously injured.
A woman mourned alongside several dead people after the attack on Hrosa.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office)
“Demonstratively brutal crime”
Hrosa is located not far from the city of Kupyansk. The mourners had gathered there in a café for the funeral service. After the attack, the Ukrainian president’s press office provided photos showing, among other things, several deaths. Volodymyr Zelenskyj himself spoke on Telegram of a “demonstratively brutal Russian crime.” The Ukrainian side accused Russia of knowing that civilians were gathering there.
The Kremlin repeatedly justifies the large-scale invasion of Ukraine with tens of thousands of deaths with supposedly rampant neo-Nazism – which is said to reach into the Ukrainian leadership – without providing any further evidence. Ukrainian President Zelenskyj himself is of Jewish descent. In Kremlin-speak, the war of aggression against Ukraine is simply called a “special operation” directed against “neo-Nazis.” A claim that is very popular with the Russian population and is also constantly broadcast on state television.
Observers see the neo-Nazi accusations – although the Ukrainian army is not completely free of neo-Nazis, just like the Russian one – as a pretext to conceal the Kremlin’s true interests.