Young victim, 9, of ‘cynical Russian cruise missile test’

Hockey ace among 11 dead

- JOHN MARONE

NINE-YEAR-OLD budding ice hockey player Gordy Udovichenko and his mum Olena were among 11 people killed when Russia tested a new ballistic missile, by targeting their tower block in Kharkiv in the early hours of March 7.

The body of an unidentified 13-year-old girl and "the fragments" of eight others were also found in the rubble. A dozen more people were reported injured.

Serhii Prokopenko, editor of Kharkiv's Gwara media, called the attack "sad", but not surprising — the eastern Ukrainian city of over one million inhabitants is just 20 miles from the Russian border. It is pounded by missiles and drones around a dozen times a month.