Russian shelling Thursday killed two people in the southern city of Kherson and left it without power, Ukrainian officials said, in the latest bombardments since its recapture by Kyiv last month.
The deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on social media that Russian forces had shelled the city center.
“There is information about two people killed. Emergency services are on site,” he said.
The regional governor, Yaroslav Yanushevych, meanwhile said the attacks had left the city “completely without power.”
“Heavy shelling of a critical infrastructure facility in the city’s port area is ongoing. At the first opportunity, electricity service workers will begin to restore power,” he added.
Russian forces seized Kherson — which had a pre-war population of nearly 300,000 people — shortly after invading Ukraine in February.
Ukraine’s army recaptured the city in November in a significant military and symbolic defeat for Moscow.
The ministry responsible for reintegrating recaptured territory said Thursday that 11,000 people had left Kherson since it was recaptured and that most had been evacuated by the government.
Regional officials have estimated that around 100,000 residents remained in Kherson during Russian occupation.
“Unfortunately, constant shelling prevents (Kherson city) from fully restoring normal life,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk was cited as saying by the ministry.
Russian forces pulled back to the opposing bank of the Dnipro river that runs along Kherson and have since been shelling the city repeatedly, damaging key infrastructure.
Tymoshenko said earlier Thursday that Russian attacks across the entire southern Kherson region over the previous 24 hours had left three dead and 13 more injured.
Kherson today.
Two large-scale fires occurred after the #Russian shelling of the city. #Ukrainian rescuers extinguished the fire for about 10 hours.
Source: https://t.co/0M3j5bzPom pic.twitter.com/mQkTqrluW5
— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) December 14, 2022
