“Don’t ignore the air raid sirens, stay in shelters,” Kirill Tymoshenko wrote on Telegram
Air raid sirens sounded this morning across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, local officials said.
“Do not ignore the air raid sirens, stay in the shelters,” Kirill Tymoshenko, the deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, wrote on Telegram.
Kherson without electricity
After heavy Russian shelling continued on Thursday in Kherson, killing two people and cutting off electricity in the city in southern Ukraine, the EU announced new sanctions against Moscow and new aid of 18 billion euros in Kyiv.
The conflict is expected to continue next year, according to the head of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zaluzny, who said yesterday that he expects a new Russian offensive against Kiev in the first months of 2023, while for several months fighting has been concentrated in the east and the southern part of Ukraine.
The Russian military hit Kherson yesterday “more than 16 times”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The shelling hit the center of the city, which the Ukrainian army recaptured from Russia on November 11.
“The enemy hit the city center again, 100 meters from the regional administration building,” which was bombed on Wednesday, Ukrainian presidential deputy chief of staff Kirylo Tymoshenko wrote on Telegram, citing “two dead.”
The shelling “damaged a building used by local authorities, voluntary and humanitarian organizations to distribute aid to the people of Kherson,” said Denise Brown, the UN coordinator in Ukraine.
She said she was “shocked” by this “tragic” attack, which claimed the life of a woman “who worked as an ambulance carrier for the Ukrainian Red Cross”.
On Twitter, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Miriana Spoliaric, called on the warring sides not to target “personnel and property” of the Red Cross.
For his part, the governor of Kherson Yaroslav Yanusevic pointed out a few hours later that “heavy shelling” was aimed at “critical infrastructure”. Since then “Khersona is without electricity”, as he wrote on Telegram.
Since October, Russia has been bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. In response, the 27 EU countries agreed yesterday on the ninth package of sanctions against Moscow. They also decided to offer 18 billion euros in aid to Kyiv.
Millions of Ukrainians now have electricity only a few hours a day, and power and heating outages are common.
After its liberation, Kherson became the target of Russian strikes almost every day.
“We have wounded almost every day and dead too. And this situation will continue,” pointed out Yuriy Sobolevsky, a local official, speaking to state-run Suspilne TV.
Due to the bombings and very difficult living conditions in the city, approximately 11,000 residents of Kherson have left it after it was liberated by the Russian army.
At the same time, the situation on the front in eastern Ukraine remains tense, with heavy fighting still raging.
In the Donetsk region, “the Bakhmut and Avdiivka regions remain at the center of the fighting,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Gana Maliar said yesterday.
In Zaporizhia province, a 65-year-old man was killed by Russian shelling in the town of Marganets, which wounded three more, according to local authorities.
Pro-Russian separatist authorities in Ukraine have spoken of “the most massive shelling of Donetsk since 2014” by the Ukrainian military. At least one civilian was killed and nine wounded, said Alexei Kulemzin, the head of Russia’s Donetsk administration.
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
