10 dead, 55 wounded as shells pummel Ukrainian city of Kherson, officials say

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian shells pummeled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday, killing not less than 10 folks and injuring 55 within the metropolis that Moscow’s troops had been pressured to desert final month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, simply again from his quick trip to Washington, posted photographs of the wreckage on his social media accounts. He famous the destruction got here as Ukrainians had been starting Christmas celebrations that for a lot of Orthodox Christians will culminate within the conventional celebration Jan. 7.

“This isn’t delicate content material — it’s the true lifetime of Kherson,” Zelenskyy tweeted. The photographs confirmed vehicles on fireplace, our bodies on the road and constructing home windows blown out.

Yaroslav Yanushevych, the governor of the Kherson area, mentioned in televised remarks that the variety of folks killed within the newest shelling of town has risen from seven to 10.

He added that 55 folks had been wounded, 18 of them in grave situation. Yanushevych mentioned scores of others, together with a 6-year-old woman, had been wounded by Russian shelling a day earlier.

Saturday marks 10 months because the begin of the Russian invasion.

Ukraine has confronted a blistering onslaught of Russian artillery fire, missiles, shelling and drone assaults since early October, a lot of it focusing on the vitality infrastructure in a bid to chop electrical energy and heating companies because the freezing winter advances. The shelling has been particularly intense in Kherson since Russian forces withdrew and Ukraine’s military reclaimed town in November.

Earlier Saturday, the Donetsk regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, mentioned two folks had been killed and 5 wounded in shelling there over the previous day. The deaths had been in Kurakhove, a city of about 20,000 18 miles west of Russian-controlled Donetsk metropolis.

About 60 shells hit three communities throughout the night time within the space of Nikopol, mentioned the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko.

Stepne, a settlement on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, was additionally hit by shelling however there have been no particulars on casualties, in keeping with the governor, Oleksander Starukh,

Zelenskyy has returned to Kyiv following his journey to Washington, through which he secured one other $1.8 billion military aid package.

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned the battle would finish on the negotiating desk as soon as the “particular navy operation“ achieves Russia’s objectives. He mentioned no reported Ukrainian peace plan can succeed with out considering “the realities of as we speak that may’t be ignored” — a reference to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine acknowledge Russia’s sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, in addition to different territorial beneficial properties.