The Ukrainian authorities have denounced this Saturday that in the city of Kherson, one of the hardest-hit enclaves since the beginning of the conflict and located in the south of the country, Five civilians have died as a result of a Russian attack. This new bombardment is added to what happened yesterday, in which there were also a total of five victims throughout the region.
“The terrorist state continues to bombard the civilian population of Ukraine,” said the vice-president of the presidential office of the kyiv government, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, on his Telegram channel. “Kherson, on Saturday morning, on Christmas Eve, in the central part of the city. This is not military installations, this is not a war that follows the rules,” the senior official added in a post accompanied by photos showing cars. on fire and people lying on the ground.
Moments after this first statement to the media, Tymoshenko published another message, picked up by efein which he reported that, for the moment, the attack has not only left five dead, but also twenty wounded.
Dark Christmas Eve in Kherson.
Russian invaders attacked the unconquered city with heavy weapons.
Seven people who went out for Christmas shopping were killed and 35 were injured. #russiaisaterroriststate pic.twitter.com/M59CkDFj8c— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) December 24, 2022
Last Friday, the Russian forces had bombarded the Kherson region 74 times with significant artillery caliber, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and tanks, according to the head of the military administration of that province, Yaroslav Yanushevich. “Among the wounded is a six-year-old girl. The girl was taken to the hospital with multiple shrapnel wounds. The girl is in serious condition,” she pointed out.
Ukraine recaptured Kherson – the only regional capital captured by Russia since its invasion on February 24 – last November. According to the Institute for the Study of War, since Ukraine took the city of Kherson, it has barely advanced positions in the region, having to continuously endure the insistent percussion of Russian bombardments on the different neighborhoods of the city.
It is unknown how many inhabitants are still waiting in the different shelters of the city. According to the latest estimates shared by the kyiv government, close to half of its inhabitants have fled.
Lukashenko arrives in Russia
The President of Belarus, Alexander LukashenkoMoscow’s main ally in the military campaign in Ukraine, arrived in Russia on Saturday, just five days after meeting his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Minsk.
The Belarusian president will visit the Russian Cosmonaut Preparation Center today, where representatives of Belarus and will participate in an informal meeting of the leaders of former Soviet countriesscheduled for December 26 and 27 in Saint Petersburg, according to official Belarusian sources.
Lukashenko’s arrival in Russia, where he has already been seven times this year, comes just five days after his meeting with Putin in the Belarusian capital amid fears of a more direct involvement of Minsk in the “operation Russian special military” in Ukraine, informs efe.
[Putin pide “respeto” a Occidente en su reunión con el leal Lukashenko: “¡Venceremos!”]
According to Lukashenko, 2022 is the most “intense” year in Belarusian-Russian relations due to the number of contacts between the two parties.
“The outgoing year has set records for the number and intensity of contacts at all levels, which is justified by the rapid changes in the world,” said the Belarusian leader.
