At least nine wounded in shelling of Ukraine’s Kherson amid flood evacuations
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KYIV – Russian shelling wounded at least nine people in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday as residents were being evacuated the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam,
The prosecutor-general’s office initially said one person had been killed by the Russian shelling, but later said no deaths had been reported.
In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, the Interior Ministry said the shelling had begun “precisely during the evacuation of citizens whose homes were flooded”.
It reiterated accusations that Russia has abandoned people in the territory it has occupied in the Kherson region, adding: “And it continues to prevent Ukraine from saving the most valuable – human lives.”
The prosecutor-general’s office said it had opened a war crimes investigation and that another four people had been wounded in a nearby village.
A Reuters reporter in Kherson said he could hear what sounded like artillery fire.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has denied targeting civilians, though it has bombarded cities across Ukraine with missiles and drones.
Kherson lies on the Dnipro River, about 60km downstream from the Kakhovka dam.
Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said earlier on Thursday that 68 per cent of the flooded territory in the Kherson region was on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River.
Russia has accused Ukrainian forces of shelling rescue workers in Russian-occupied parts of the Kherson region, and both sides have blamed the other for the destruction on Tuesday of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station and dam.
