Russian shells slammed into the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday, killing seven people and wounding 58 others in the city, which Moscow forces were forced to abandon last month.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, fair back from his short trip to WashingtonHe posted photos of the wreck on his social media accounts. He noted that the destruction came as Ukrainians began celebrations of Christmas, which for many Orthodox Christians will culminate in the traditional January 7 celebration.
“This is not sensitive content – it is real life from Kherson,” Zelenskyy tweeted. The images showed burning cars, dead bodies on the street, and broken building windows.
Deputy head of the presidential office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said seven people were killed and 58 injured, at least 16 of them seriously, in the shelling of Kherson on Saturday.
Libko / AP
Saturday marks 10 months since the beginning of Russian invasion.
Ukraine has been under a heavy onslaught of Russian artillery fire, missiles, shelling and drone strikes since early October, much of which has targeted energy infrastructure Cut electricity and heating as the freezing cold winter progresses. Shelling in Kherson has been particularly intense since Russian forces withdrew and the Ukrainian army retook the southern city in November.
Earlier on Saturday, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two people were killed and five injured there over the past day. The deaths occurred in Kurakhove, a town of about 20,000 people located 30 kilometers west of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk.
A total of about 60 shells hit three municipalities in the Nikopol area during the night, said the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko.
Stepne, a settlement on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, was also hit by shells, but details of the victims were not available, according to Governor Oleksander Starukh.
Zelenskyy has returned to Kiev after his trip to Washington, during which he secured another $1.8 billion military aid package.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday the war would end at the negotiating table once Russia’s “special military operation” achieved goals. He said no reported Ukrainian peace plan could succeed without “considering today’s realities that cannot be ignored” – a reference to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the Crimea peninsula, annexed in 2014, as well as other territorial gains.
