KYIV: Two people were killed and another five wounded after Russian troops shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, the governor said on Sunday.

The city of Kherson was in Nove­mber recaptured by Ukrainian forces during a Kyiv counter-offensive.

“The enemy again attacked the residential quarters of Kherson,” the governor, Yaroslav Yanushevich, said on messaging app Telegram, adding the Russian forces hit a maternity ward, a cafe and apartment buildings on Saturday.

“Last night, two people were killed due to Russian shelling,” Yanushevich said, adding that five others had been wounded.

He said the region was attacked with artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and mortars.

Before their retreat in November Russian forces destroyed the city’s basic utilities infrastructure, and have since repeatedly shelled Kherson.

In the Black Sea city of Odessa, emergency shutdowns were continuing following Russian drone attacks, Sergiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the regional administration, said on Sunday.

On Saturday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 1.5 million people were left without power in the region of Odessa after Russia used Iranian drones to strike the city and surrounding territory.

On Sunday, regional governor Maksym Marchenko said power was “gradually” returning to Odessa and that 300,000 people had no electricity.

Authorities also said that “interruptions of water supply” had taken place due to power outages.

Ukraine attack

Ukraine attacked the Russian-occupied southern city of Melitopol on Saturday evening, the Kremlin-installed local authorities and Ukrainian officials said.

The strategically located city, which had a pre-war population of just over 150,000 people, is located in the southern region of Zapor­izhzhia that Moscow claims to have annexed.

Russian-installed officials and Ukrainian authorities issued conflicting reports about the target of the strikes and the casualties.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russia-installed head of Zaporizhzhia region, said that using US-supplied HIMARS long-range rocket launchers, Ukrainian troops struck Melitopol at around 9:00pm on Saturday.

He said that the attack had destroyed a “recreation centre” on the outskirts of Melitopol, killed two people and injured another 10.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2022