Russian shells struck the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 55 in the city that Moscow’s troops were forced to abandon last month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had just returned from his short trip to Washington, posted photos of the wreck on his social media accounts. He noted that the destruction occurred as Ukrainians began Christmas celebrations, which for many Orthodox Christians will culminate in the traditional January 7 celebration.
“This is not sensitive content, this is real life Kherson,” Zelenskyy tweeted. The footage showed cars on fire, bodies in the street and windows of buildings blown out.
Yaroslav Yanushevych, the Kherson region governor, said in televised statements that the number of people killed in the latest shelling of the city had risen from seven to 10.
He added that 55 people were injured, 18 of them in serious condition. Yanushevych said dozens of other people, including a 6-year-old girl, were injured by Russian shelling the day before.
Saturday marks 10 months since the start of the Russian invasion.
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Ukraine has faced an avalanche of Russian artillery, rocket, bombing and drone strikes since early October, largely targeting energy infrastructure in a bid to disrupt electricity and heating services as the freezing winter rolls on. Shelling has been especially heavy in Kherson since Russian forces withdrew and the Ukrainian army retook the city in November.
On Saturday, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two people were killed and five injured in shelling in the past day. The deaths occurred in Kurakhove, a town of about 20,000 people 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk.
About 60 shells hit three communities overnight in the Nikopol region, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.
Stepne, a settlement on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, was also hit by the shelling, but there are no details on the casualties, Governor Oleksander Starukh said.
Zelenskyy returned to Kiev after his trip to Washington, during which he secured another $1.8 billion military aid package.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the war would end at the negotiating table once the “special military operation” achieved Russia’s goals. He said no Ukrainian peace plan could succeed without taking into account “today’s realities that cannot be ignored,” a reference to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the country’s Crimea peninsula, which it has annexed in 2014, as well as other territorial gains. .
