Ukraine: Kherson regional administration hit by Russian missile

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With fires raging, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar said that a maternity hospital was among the latest targets attacked by Russia in the southern city, which Kyiv forces only recently won back.

She added that a baby had been born just before the attack. And Russian forces have now fired 33 rockets at civilian facilities in the Ukrainian city of Kherson since Tuesday, Ukraine’s military said.

It added that fighting has intensified with Russia deploying more tanks and armoured vehicles on the front lines.

Ukraine has been evacuating people who want to leave the recently liberated southern city and its surrounding areas amid growing damage to infrastructure by Russian shelling.

The continuing evacuation comes after Russian forces pulled out its troops from Kherson last month, the first and only regional capital they had captured since the invasion of Ukraine in late February.

But the horrors faced daily by the civilians left behind, as Russia this week intensified shelling of the city, is only too clear.

One young mother, Elena, as she tried to flee with her three young daughters, said: “Before, they [Russian forces] shelled us seven to 10 times a day, now it’s 70-80 times, all day long. It’s too scary. I love Ukraine and my dear city. But we have to go.”

She was among among more than 400 people who have left Kherson since Christmas Day, after a sharp increase in the intensity of the bombardment of the city by the Russian military.

Although Kremlin forces pulled out of Kherson more than a month ago, the withdrawal was seen by military strategists as a major humiliation for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And while his forces have been driven back, intensified and relentless shelling of Kherson has meant it has become almost impossible to live there.

The remaining population has been without power sporadically for weeks, amid freezing temperatures, and has seen daily rocket attacks in increasing numbers.

After suffering a series of painful defeats on the battlefield, Russia has particularly stepped up attacks in recent weeks on electricity infrastructure in cities away from the front lines.

In just the last month, more a third of the country’s power stations have reportedly been destroyed, according to President Volodymr Zelensky, with many more badly damaged.

The Ukrainian government has been forced to urge the population to try and use energy sparingly as a result.

But the ongoing plight of innocent residents in Kherson comes as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) yesterday released the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine – a total of 17,831 between 24 February 2022 to 26 December 2022.

The actual figure is feared to be considerably higher.

The OHCHR recorded a total of 6,884 civilians killed including 2,719 men, 1,832 women, 175 girls, and 216 boys, as well as 38 children and 1,904 adults whose sex is yet unknown.

A total of 10,947 have been injured, with most in Donetsk and Luhansk regions where 4,052 civilians have been killed and 5,643 injured.

The office warned that “the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.”

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