Russian shelling in Kherson leaves at least three civilians dead

KHERSON, Ukraine — Russian shelling of Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson left at least three people dead on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, while a strike on Kharkiv killed one person, according to the regional governor.

“Today, the Russian army has been shelling Kherson atrociously all day,” Zelensky said in his evening address.

The regional administration said the shelling damaged a hospital, school, bus station, post office, bank, and residential buildings.

“Two women, nurses, were wounded in the hospital. As of now, there are reports of six wounded and three dead,” said Zelensky.

The front in southern Ukraine has been considerably quieter recently than in the east. Russian forces retreated from Kherson to locations across the Dnieper River in November, but still hold much of the province of the same name.

The key city and regional capital is still subject to frequent shelling.

Ukrainian policemen stand in front of a damaged residential building after a Russian shelling in Kherson, southern Ukraine, on January 29, 2023. (Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

In eastern Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, the governor of the regional military administration said a Russian strike hit “a four-story residential building”.

“Three victims received minor injuries. Unfortunately, an elderly woman died … The building was partially destroyed,” Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram.

In the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine, where fighting intensified in recent days after several months of a stagnant front, Moscow-appointed officials said Kyiv struck a railway bridge, killing four people.

Ukraine on Sunday carried out an “attack from a HIMARS multiple rocket launcher on a railway bridge across the Molochnaya river”, the Russian-installed head of the region, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on social media.

Ukrainian policemen watch firefighters working in a house in flame following Russian shelling in the city of Kherson, on January 29, 2023. (Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

“Four people from the railways brigade were killed, five were injured,” Balitsky added.

The bridge is in a village north of the Russian-controlled city of Melitopol and was undergoing repairs, according to Balitsky.

Russia claims to have annexed the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions along with two other Ukrainian regions in the east, but does not fully control these territories.

AP contributed to this report.