Heavy shelling hits civilian areas in Kherson

Lviv, Ukraine, Dec 28 (EFE).- The recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson came under attack on Wednesday with reports of up to 23 missiles striking civilian targets, according to Ukraine authorities.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said Russian forces shelled the Kherson region up to 50 times in the last 24 hours, adding that many of the attacks were on civilian property, the Ukrainian Ukrinform news agency reported.

Authorities said that shells struck a medical institution, a kindergarten, a bakery, warehouses and apartment buildings.

A Kherson maternity hospital was also under attack Wednesday morning with no casualties reported, Yanushevych added.

The eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, in Donetsk, where Russia has amassed large numbers of troops, armored vehicles and heavy weapons, were also under Russian attack on Wednesday.

“On December 27, the Russians injured three civilians in the Donetsk region – in Bakhmut,” the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram, according to Ukrinform.

Fresh missile strikes were also reported early Wednesday morning in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, with regional authorities urging civilians to observe safety measures and to take shelter.

Amid persistent Russian shelling of critical infrastructure, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, released his daily video at midnight with a message of hope regarding the country’s economic outlook.

Zelenskyy said that the world’s companies believe in Ukraine’s victory and are prepared to invest in its reconstruction after he’d held talks with the director of the BlackRock investment fund, the world’s largest asset manager.

“Specialists of this company are already helping Ukraine to structure the Fund for the reconstruction of our state. And we are already preparing to participate in the World Economic Forum in Davos,” the Ukrainian president said. EFE

int-gc/ch/jt