Conflicts & War

Russian strikes on central Kherson kill 8 civilians: authorities

Lviv, Ukraine, Dec 24 (EFE).- At least eight civilians were killed by Russian strikes in the center of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson Saturday, local officials said.

The Kherson regional prosecutor’s office said another 17 people were injured in the attack, adding that it had opened a war crime investigation.

The latest attack by Russia on the recently liberated city came a day after another five civilians were killed by strikes in the region.

A tweet shared on the official page of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy read: “This is not sensitive content – it’s the real life of Ukraine.

“Kherson. On the eve of Christmas, in the central part of the city. It’s terror, it’s killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure. The world must see what absolute evil we are fighting against.”

The Russian military on Friday carried out 74 strikes in the Kherson region using artillery, multiple rocket launcher systems, mortars and tanks, the regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said.

Having captured Kherson in the early days of the invasion, Russia was forced to retreat from the city in November amid a Ukrainian counterattack.

It was the only regional capital Moscow had managed to occupy in its full-blown invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Kherson was one of four regions president Vladimir Putin unilaterally annexed in late September along with neighboring Zaporizhzhia and the Donbas regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, much of which have been under de facto pro-Russian control since 2014.EFE

int-cph/jt

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