LAST UPDATE | 18 Dec 2022
UKRAINE HAS SAID that Russian shelling today targeted the southern city of Kherson, which has been faced repeated attacks since Kyiv’s forces recaptured it last month.
“Another blow was delivered to the city centre. Three people were injured. They received shrapnel wounds, one wounded is in a serious condition,” deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on social media.
Regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said that Moscow’s troops had carried out 54 attacks on Kherson region with artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and mortars over the previous day, leaving three dead and wounding six others.
Kherson has been subjected to persistent Russian shelling since Moscow’s forces retreated in November, and power was cut in the city earlier this week.
Russia claimed to have annexed Kherson region along with three more in September, vowing to defend them with all available military means.
The shelling comes after Russia on Friday launched a barrage of missiles on multiple cities in Ukraine, further straining the country’s battered energy grid.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today issued a video address to football fans ahead of the World Cup final between Argentina and France calling for peace to “become the champion”.
“This World Cup proved time and again that different countries and nationalities can decide who is the strongest in fair play, but not in playing with fire,” Zelenskyy said in the video.
Electricity has been restored to almost six million Ukrainians amid ongoing power and water shortages following Russia’s latest wave of attacks.
The country worked yesterday to restore power and water supplies after Moscow launched a barrage of missiles on multiple cities on Friday, plunging them into darkness and forcing people to endure sub-zero temperatures without heating or running water.
In the capital Kyiv, the metro had stopped running so that people wrapped in winter coats could take shelter at underground stations, but Mayor Vitali Klitschko said yesterday the service had resumed.
Water supply had also been restored and 75% of the city’s population had their heating supply back.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, power had also been fully returned, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said yesterday, after the strikes had left Ukraine’s second city without electricity.
Ukraine’s national energy provider Ukrenergo had imposed emergency blackouts in response to the strikes, warning the extent of the damage in the north, south and centre of the country meant it could take longer to restore supplies than after previous attacks.
The country’s energy system “continues to recover”, it said yesterday.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say