An artillery strike, apparently by Russian forces, hit a market in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Tuesday, killing at least seven people and injuring three others, authorities said.
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According to the region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, the attack occurred while customers were moving between stalls at the city center market.
He posted a video showing the blurred bodies of people in civilian clothes lying near a display of tomatoes and other vegetables.
“The occupiers attacked a market in the center of Kherson. The attack hit retail outlets where Kherson residents bought or sold products in the morning. Currently, at least eight people are known to have been injured. Earlier, five people were killed and three others were injured,” he added.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said the strike was “most likely” carried out by Russian artillery around 9 a.m. and occurred near a local market and train stop. public transport.
According to law enforcement, seven people were killed in the attack – three women and four men. Three citizens were also injured and are receiving qualified medical treatment.
The Interior Ministry said: “The Russians attacked the city around 9 a.m., while the entire country was in mourning and observed a minute of silence to honor the memory of the fallen defenders. This is further proof of the pettiness and baseness of our enemy.”
Kherson, annexed by Russia…. and liberated by the Ukrainians a month later
The city has not recently been a flashpoint in the war, now entering its third year, as the fiercest battles have taken place in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army is putting strong pressure to take ground before winter.
Ukrainian forces responded with an incursion into the Russian border region of Kursk, but the government is waiting to know what Western military and financial support it can still count on.
The Kherson region is one of four regions (also Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia) that Moscow has illegally annexed on September 30, 2022 and which it still partly occupies.
Kherson fell to the Russians after the all-out invasion of Moscow in February 2022. A Ukrainian counter-offensive recaptured the western areas of the Kherson region, including the regional capital of the same namesix months later, at the beginning of November 2022.
“Daily Russian terror… can be stopped”
The market attack took place the same morning that Ukraine was celebrating Defenders Dayan annual holiday that honors the country’s armed forces, veterans and war dead.
Across Ukraine, traffic stopped and people on sidewalks came to a standstill at 9 a.m. to commemorate those who defend Ukraine and those who sacrificed their lives for the country.
This holiday was established in 2014 and celebrated for the first time in 2015following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and occupation of parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Although no official or reliable statistics are available, Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are believed to have died fighting Russia over the past decade.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took the opportunity to ask his country’s Western partners for additional support, following his visit to the United States last week.
ADVERTISEMENT“Daily Russian terror, daily attempts to destroy life – all this can be stopped,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on Telegram after the Kherson attack, adding that “Ukrainian strength and the determination of our partners must be stronger than Putin’s desire to spread terror.”
In a speech addressed to the military, Mr. Zelensky thanked the troops for their sacrifices.
“You are dedicated to ensuring that Ukraine is not abandoned. Both those who were born warriors and those who became one. You changed your life so that our freedom remains unchanged,” Mr. Zelensky said.
