Six civilians were killed and 12 wounded in Russian shelling of a market and public transport stop in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on February 21, Ukraine’s military said.
The southern military command said in a statement that Kherson came under fire as Russian President Vladimir Putin was delivering a speech in which he depicted his country as not being at war with the Ukrainian people.
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“The Russian army is heavily shelling Kherson. Again mercilessly killing the civilian population,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app, confirming the death toll.
“The world has no right to forget for a single moment that Russian cruelty and aggression know no bounds,” he said in a post below photographs of bodies on the pavement, broken shop fronts and a transport stop that had been destroyed.
Local authorities said the city had come under attack from Russian forces using Grad multiple rocket launchers.
Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November after nearly eight months of occupation by Russian forces who seized it soon after invading Ukraine a year ago.
The city of Kherson and surrounding areas are now under almost constant bombardment from Russian forces on the opposite side of the Dnipro River.
