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Russian forces stepped up mortar and artillery attacks on the recently liberated city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said, while also exerting constant pressure on front lines in the country’s eastern region.
Russia fired 33 missiles from multiple rocket launchers at civilian targets in Kherson in the 24 hours to early Wednesday, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a morning report. Russia denies targeting civilians.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday released the number of civilian casualties related to the war in Ukraine. It said 6,884 people were known to have died, including 429 children, between February 24, when the invasion began, and December 26. OHCR put the number of injured at 10,947.
Most of the recorded civilian casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons, it said in a statement.
“OHCHR believes that the actual figure is higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where there is intense hostilities has been delayed and many reports are still awaiting confirmation,” the statement said.
Heavy fighting also took place on Wednesday around the Ukrainian-held town of Bakhmut, now in ruins, in eastern Donetsk province, and to the north, around the towns of Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk province, where Ukrainian forces are trying to destroy. Russian defense line.
National air raid siren
Air raid sirens also sounded in Ukraine on Wednesday morning, officials said. Ukrainian social media reports said the national alert may have been announced after a Russian jet was grounded in Belarus. Reuters could not immediately verify the information.
Britain’s defense ministry said in its latest update on the military situation in Ukraine that Russia may strengthen the Kreminna section of the front line because logistics are important to Moscow and have become vulnerable following Ukrainian advances in the west.
There is still no prospect of talks to end the war, now in its 11th month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vigorously pushed for a 10-point peace plan that outlines Russia fully respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and withdrawing all its forces, something Moscow refuses to consider.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he was open to negotiations but only on his terms, including Ukraine receiving the loss of four regions – Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. Together, they cover about one-fifth of the territory of Ukraine.
The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected Zelenskyy’s plan. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “There is no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account the current reality of Russian territory, with the accession of four territories to Russia. A plan that does not take into account this reality cannot be peaceful.”
Russia declared Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as part of the region in September after a referendum condemned by Ukraine and Western countries. Russia does not control all of these four regions.
‘The pressure from the enemy is increasing’
“There has been very little change in terms of the front line but the pressure from the enemy is increasing, in terms of the number of people and the type and amount of equipment,” Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said.
Zhdanov said the fighting has intensified with Russia using armored vehicles and tanks.
Russian forces abandoned the city of Kherson last month in one of Ukraine’s most significant war gains. The Kherson region, located at the mouth of the mighty Dnipro River and a gateway to Russian-annexed Crimea, is strategically important.
Kherson residents’ joy at the city’s liberation quickly turned to fear amid relentless Russian fire from the east bank of the Dnipro, and many fled.
Russian forces attacked the maternity wing of the hospital in Kherson, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Zelenskyy’s deputy chief of staff, said on Telegram. No one was injured and staff and patients have been shifted to shelters, he added.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
A Russian attack killed at least 10 people and wounded 58 in Kherson last Saturday, Ukraine said.
More shelling was reported in Zaporizhzhia
In Wednesday’s report, Ukraine’s General Staff also reported more Russian attacks in the Zaporizhzhia region and in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions in northeastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield report.
In Bakhmut, home to 70,000 people before the war and now a bombed-out ghost town, which Russia has tried for months to storm at a great cost in lives, a Reuters reporter this week saw a fire in a large residential building. Debris littered the streets and the windows of many buildings were blown away.
“Our building was destroyed. There was a shop in our building, now it’s gone,” said Oleksandr, 85, adding that he was the only resident left.
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