Kherson, a large city in southern Ukraine recently taken over by kyiv, found itself Thursday again under intense Russian strikes which killed two people and caused a generalized blackout of electricity in the middle of winter.
Several bombardments shook Thursday this city located on the Dnieper river, about 500 kilometers from kyiv as the crow flies, affecting in particular its center.
“The enemy again struck the center of the city, 100 meters from the regional administration building” already bombed the day before, said on Telegram the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko, reporting “ two deaths.
A few hours later, the regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich indicated that a new “heavy bombardment” targeted the “critical infrastructure site”. Since then, “Kherson has been totally without electricity,” he said on Telegram.
Here as elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia has been targeting with its missiles and drones as a priority, since October and a series of humiliating setbacks, the energy infrastructures of its neighbor which it invaded on February 24.
Millions of Ukrainians now have only a few hours of electricity a day, and suffer from heating and water cuts just as winter sets in.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian authorities said they had succeeded in destroying all of the 13 Russian explosive drones which were to fall on kyiv.
Liberated by the Ukrainian army a month ago, the city of Kherson has since been the almost daily target of Russian strikes.
Massive bombardment in Donetsk
“We have injuries almost every day and deaths almost every day. And this situation will continue for a long time”, noted a regional official Yuri Sobolevsky quoted Thursday by the site of public television suspended.
On Wednesday, the strike on the regional administration left six injured, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
Across the Kherson region, three civilians were killed and 13 injured on Wednesday, Tymoshenko said on Telegram.
Among those victims is an eight-year-old boy who succumbed to his injuries, a military spokesman for the region, Dmytro Pletentchouk, added on Facebook.
Faced with regular strikes and very difficult living conditions, the authorities continue to call on residents to evacuate to safer areas, Mr. Sobolevsky pointed out that hundreds of people leave the city of Kherson every day.
In total, around 11,000 residents have left Kherson since the announcement of voluntary evacuations by the Ukrainian authorities following the reconquest of the city on November 11, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, constant bombing prevents the regional capital from fully returning to normal life,” she regretted. “Look at what Russia is doing today with Kherson,” the official lamented.
Russian forces occupied the city of Kherson which then had a population of almost 300,000 and almost all of the eponymous region shortly after the start of their invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24.
Its recapture by the Ukrainian army led to a withdrawal of Russian forces towards the left bank of the Dnieper river. But before this retreat, the Russians destroyed basic public service infrastructure in the city, according to local authorities.
In eastern Ukraine the situation at the front remained very tense and fierce fighting continued.
In the Donetsk region, “the directions of Bakhmout and Avdiivka remain the epicenter of the fighting,” said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar on Thursday.
Executions of civilians
For their part, the pro-Russian separatist authorities reported a Ukrainian bombardment of Donetsk, “the most massive since 2014”, the year when this city came under the control of these rebels supported by Moscow.
At least one civilian was killed there and nine injured, said Alexei Kulemzin, the head of the Russian administration in Donetsk.
Internationally, the UN has announced that it has recorded hundreds of summary executions of civilians during the first months of the invasion by Russian forces, which constitute “probable war crimes”.
This UN commission of inquiry recorded 441 summary executions and murders in three regions of Ukraine – kyiv, Cherniguiv and Sumy – during their occupation between the end of February and the beginning of April, underlined the high commissioner of the UN for Human Rights Volker Türk, presenting a report in Geneva.
“The true numbers are likely higher,” he added.
Finally, the European Parliament recognized Thursday as genocide the Holodomor, famine in Ukraine caused by the Soviets 90 years ago, which resulted in the death of several million people. Moscow rejects the qualifier of genocide.