Russian shells hit the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday, killing at least 10 and wounding 55
UPDATE – 12:56AM, SUNDAY – 12/25/22
A Ukrainian soldier opens fire on Russian positions on the front line near Malinka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region (AP Photo)
Kyiv: Russian artillery shells hit the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 55, which Moscow’s army was forced to abandon last month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, fresh from a trip to Washington, posted photos of the wreckage on his social media accounts. He noted that the destruction came as Ukrainians began to celebrate Christmas, which for many Orthodox Christians will culminate in the traditional celebrations on January 7.
“This is not sensitive – this is Kherson’s real life,” Zelensky tweeted. Images showed cars on fire, bodies on the street and windows of buildings blown out.
The governor of Kherson region, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said in a televised address that the number of people killed in the latest shelling in the city had risen from seven to 10.
He added that 55 people were injured, 18 of them seriously. Dozens of people, including a six-year-old girl, were wounded in Russian shelling a day earlier, Yanousevich said.
Saturday marks 10 months since the Russian invasion began.
Since early October, Ukraine has faced an onslaught of Russian artillery fire, missiles, shelling and drone strikes, most of which have targeted energy infrastructure, with the aim of cutting off power and heating services as the harsh winter approaches. Shelling in Kherson has been particularly intense since Russian troops withdrew and Ukrainian troops retook the city in November.
Earlier on Saturday, Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two people had been killed and five wounded in shelling over the past day. The deaths occurred in Kurakhove, a town of about 20,000 people 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.
Dnepropetrovsk region governor Valentyn Reznichenko said about 60 shells hit three neighborhoods in the Nikopol region during the night.
Stepne, a settlement on the outskirts of Zaporozhye city, was also shelled, according to governor Oleksander Starukh, without details on casualties,
Zelensky returned to Kyiv after his trip to Washington, where he received another $1.8 billion military aid package.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the war would be on the negotiating table once “special military operations” reached Russian targets. He said any reported Ukrainian peace plan was unlikely to succeed without taking into account “the realities of today that cannot be ignored” — referring in this to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the Crimea peninsula it annexed in 2014, and Other territorial gains.
