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At least 17 people have been killed and dozens more wounded after a Russian missile struck a crowded outdoor market in eastern Ukraine – the attack coming as Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, was in Kyiv for an unannounced visit. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack in the city of Kostiantynivka, saying that a child was among the dead. Kostiantynivka – which had a pre-war population of around 70,000 – sits about 20 miles (30km) from the ruined city of Bakhmut, the scene for some of the bloodiest fighting of Russia’s invasion. Police said that nearly 30 stalls, a pharmacy, an apartment block, a bank, and a number of cars were damaged as the missile hit at 2pm local time. Officials said more than 30 people were injured. Video footage of the strike showed people looking up to the sky as they heard a missile approaching. Seconds later they are running for cover or falling to the ground after a huge explosion. Another video released by police showed rescuers searching through the kiosks and, as bodies were taken out in black sacks, people shouting: “Who have you found?” It also showed the floor of the pharmacy covered in blood, as a police spokeswoman can be heard saying: “At the moment of the strike civilians were here, they were buying medicines and this is what happened. People died here.” “This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible,” Mr Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app. “When someone in the world still attempts to deal with anything Russian, it means turning a blind eye to this reality. The audacity of evil. The brazenness of wickedness. Utter inhumanity.” He later told a press conference in Kyiv that he believed it had been a deliberate attack on “a peaceful city”. Hours before the strike on Kostiantynivka, booms could be heard in the capital Kyiv as the train carrying Mr Blinken wound its way to the city, the Russians appearing to want to herald his arrival with a missile attack. No casualties were reported in the capital but local officials said one person was killed in the Odesa region where Russian missiles also fell. Mr Blinken’s two-day visit is a show of Washington’s continued support for Mr Zelensky and the Ukrainian war effort. The secretary of state is the first senior US official to visit Kyiv since its counteroffensive against Vladimir Putin’s forces began in early June. Mr Blinken met with Mr Zelensky on Wednesday and also held talks with foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba. Mr Blinken is also expected to announce a new package of US assistance. The total package will be worth up to $1 billion (£800 million), but may not all be announced by Mr Blinken in Kyiv. “We want to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, not only to succeed in the counteroffensive, but has what it needs for the long term, to make sure that it has a strong deterrent,” Mr Blinken said standing alongside Mr Kuleba. A US State Department official said Washington wanted to discuss how the counteroffensive was going and assess battlefield needs as well as any steps that might be required to shore up Ukraine’s energy security before winter. “I think what’s most important is that we get a real assessment from the Ukrainians themselves,” the official told Reuters. “We want to see, and hear how they intend to push forward in the coming weeks.” When asked about Mr Blinken’s visit, Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for the Kremlin, said that Moscow believed Washington planned to continue funding Ukraine’s military “to wage this war to the last Ukrainian”. During his train ride to Kyiv, Mr Blinken held talks with Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen, who was conducting her own visit to Kyiv. The US secretary of state thanked Ms Frederiksen for Denmark’s donation of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine and its membership of a coalition of nations – including the UK – training Ukrainian pilots. Denmark and the Netherlands announced last month they would supply more than 60 US-made F-16s as soon as pilots are trained to fly them. They are the first countries to offer the jets. Also on Wednesday, Ukraine’s parliament approved the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the country’s new defence minister. Mr Umerov replaces Oleksii Reznikov, who helped secure billions of pounds of Western military aid, but was sacked by Mr Zelensky. Mr Reznikov’s ministry was dogged by a number of scandals involving corruption allegations. The former minister did not face corruption allegations himself, but says he is the victim of a smear campaign. Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Russian missile turns Ukrainian market into fiery, blackened ruin strewn with bodies US lawmakers visiting The Hague say Russian President Putin is committing genocide in Ukraine Paul Whelan seen for first time in years in rare video inside Russia prison

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Hundreds of fake Facebook posts are scaring people into sharing them, fact checkers have warned. Community groups are being filled with hoax posts that are shared across many groups and include scary information, intended to encourage people to share them. They claim that serial killers are on the loose, that deadly snakes are around, or that dogs or children have gone missing. One post claimed that a man was attacking people with a knife in the local area, for instance, claiming that he was preying on “home-alone teens” and demanding money from people. The same text has been circulated in a variety of locations in the UK – and has also been seen in the US and Australia – with police forces across the world having to make clear that it is a hoax. At least some of those posts are then being edited after the fact to change them to include financial offers that target people in the UK, and make exaggerated claims about those companies, according to Full Fact, the fact checking charity that has sounded the alarm on the posts. They then link users out to legitimate companies with the aim of making money through affiliate links that offer money for clicks. Full Fact said that it had identified over 1,200 hoax posts, spread across the UK. But it said there were likely many more. “The sheer scale of these posts is hard to fathom and we are conscious that the 1,200 or so we have identified is likely just the tip of the iceberg,” said Steve Nowottny, Editor at Full Fact. “These posts are all highly emotive and get shared widely because people understandably want to help those in need or warn their neighbours about threats. “But that’s where the risk lies – the hoaxers have clearly identified the massive reach these posts can have and local Facebook groups across the world are now becoming overwhelmed with false information. “Some of these hoaxes appear designed to terrify local communities, and sow needless fear and confusion. As a result, genuine warnings about dangers and genuine posts from people desperately appealing for help, such as those looking for missing loved ones or missing pets, are now at a much higher risk of being ignored. “The impact and scale of these hoaxes and the edited posts they are often replaced by is extremely concerning, which is why we have written to Meta to raise the alarm about this issue. ” Full Fact works with Facebook parent Meta on its third-party fact checking programme. It warned the company that “the risks posed by these posts are pernicious and frequent enough to merit stronger action from Meta in terms of proactively identifying and tackling this growing trend” in April, it said. Full Fact acknowledged that it is difficult to tell when a Facebook post is a hoax, since posts in groups are also often used to send out legitimate and important alerts. But it provided a list of characteristics that tend to indicate that a post might false. Many hoax posts close the comments, for instance, though fact checkers noted that some genuine posts close comments too and that not all fake posts have them on. They also tend to have been copied and pasted, use images from elsewhere, come from pages rather than profiles, use images and language from outside the UK, and include red pins or siren emoji. Full Fact also advised people to check whether posts had been edited, if they were suspected of being hoaxes. Clicking on the three dots in the corner of a post will show its edit history. And it suggested that users search for the text within a post, to check whether it has been shared elsewhere. Many of the scammers will use the same wording, with the location changed, fact checkers noted. Some groups have been forced to share frustrations about how many hoax posts are appearing in their communities. Full Fact pointed to one group formed by dog lovers that had been set up specifically to identify fake posts about lost or injured animals. A Meta spokesperson pointed to the company’s fact checking operations, and said that it was investing in more. It pointed to recently introduced tools including features that let group admins more easily remove posts that might include misinformation. “We’ve built the largest global fact-checking network of any platform, partnering with more than 90 independent fact-checking organisations including Full Fact, to tackle misinformation online,” a Meta spokesperson said. “Fraudulent activity is not allowed on our platforms and we removed the posts Full Fact brought to our attention for violating our Community Standards. “While no enforcement is perfect, we continue to invest in new technologies to stop scams and the people behind them. We also introduced new tools last year to help Facebook Group admins prevent the spread of misinformation and manage interactions in their groups.” Read More Justin Trudeau slams Facebook for blocking news stories about wildfires Elon Musk’s Twitter slows down access to rival websites Twitter turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rivals Mark Zuckerberg says he’s ‘out of town’ as Elon Musk drives to his house to fight Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Nvidia sales hit record high as AI chip demand soars

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