Russian shelling kills 15 in Kherson as Ukraine fights to regain power

Kyiv:

Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson killed 15 civilians on Friday, officials said, as engineers across the country tried to restore heat, water and power to major cities.

Across the country, Russian airstrikes in recent weeks have brought Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to its knees as winter approaches and temperatures approach freezing, raising fears of a health crisis and further exodus.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than six million households in the country are still affected by blackouts, two days after targeted Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The deadliest Russian bombing in recent days hit Kherson, a key eastern city recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces.

In total, “15 residents were killed and 35 injured, including a child, as a result of enemy shelling,” city official Galyna Lugova said. Several “private homes and high-rise buildings” were damaged, she added.

“The Russian invaders opened fire on a residential area with multiple rocket launchers. A large building caught fire,” said Yarovslav Yanushovich, head of Kherson’s military administration.

Earlier on Friday, the governor of the Kherson region said hospital patients in the city and patients in a psychiatric ward had been evacuated due to “continued Russian shelling”.

The Kherson city government said it was offering to evacuate citizens to other regions.

The attacks on power plants and other infrastructure resources across Ukraine are Russia’s latest attempt to force Ukraine’s capitulation after Moscow’s forces failed to overthrow the government and take Kiev.

– Critical infrastructure –

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin met the mothers of soldiers fighting in Ukraine for the first time since the war began in February and assured those whose children had been killed that he and the Russian elite “share this pain.”

In Kiev, where about half of residents were still without power two days after Russian strikes hammered the country’s power grid, engineers worked to restore service.

“We have to get through this winter, a winter everyone will remember,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media, when British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited to announce a new aid package.

Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said at a government meeting: “Almost all of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure has been reconnected.”

Critical infrastructure includes water utilities, heat generating plants, hospitals and emergency services.

But Shmygal said ordinary consumers in every region of the country are still experiencing planned power outages.

Ukraine’s Western allies have condemned Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure as a “war crime”. They come in the wake of a series of military setbacks for Russia on the front lines.

Moscow insists it focuses only on militarily connected infrastructure and blames Kiev for the blackouts. It says Ukraine can end suffering by agreeing to Russia’s demands.

– Putin meets mothers –

Putin, meanwhile, met the mothers and wives of soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

“I want you to know that I, personally, and the entire leadership of the country share this pain,” he told them.

He said many news reports about the conflict could not be trusted, describing them as “fake news, deceit and lies”.

Russia has introduced legislation that effectively prohibits public criticism of the war.

Kremlin critics accuse authorities of hiding the real number of dead and wounded Russian troops.

Anger and concern have mounted across Russia since the Kremlin announced in September that hundreds of thousands of well-trained and well-equipped men would be drafted and sent to the battlefield to support Moscow’s struggling campaign.

But chaos ensued, with widespread reports of exempt men – the elderly or the sick – being sent to the front or conscripts dying after receiving almost no training, forcing the Kremlin to admit “mistakes”.

Putin’s meeting with the soldiers’ mothers is a sign that the Kremlin is taking the growing malaise seriously.

During a visit to Kiev on Friday, the British Foreign Secretary announced new aid to Ukraine, including ambulances and support for victims of sexual assault by Russian soldiers.

“Russia continues to try to break Ukrainian resolve through brutal attacks on civilians, hospitals and energy infrastructure,” Cleverly said.

“Russia will fail,” he said, promising UK support will “last as long as it takes”.

Meanwhile, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Friday that a former US Navy general and several British and Finnish fighters were operating with the group in Ukraine.

“(Finns) are fighting in a British battalion (as part of Wagner PMC), which is commanded by an American citizen, a former Marine Corps general,” Prigozhin’s press service told the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)