Russian strike on Kherson market kills seven, authorities say

Ukrainian authorities say an apparent Russian artillery strike hit a market in the city of Kherson on Tuesday morning, killing at least seven people and wounding three.

Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the strike hit as shoppers made their way between stalls at a market in the city centre. He published a video showing the blurred corpses of people in civilian clothes lying near a destroyed vegetable stall.

The General Prosecutor’s Office said the strike was “most likely” carried out by Russian artillery.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also shared images of the attack. Posting on X, he wrote that Russia “can be stopped” as it continues its offensive.

“We must achieve lasting peace for our state and our people,” Zelenskyy insisted. “For this to happen, Ukrainian strength and the resolve of our partners must outweigh Putin’s desire to wreck terror.”

Kherson fell into Russian hands after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. A Ukrainian counteroffensive nine months later recaptured western areas of the region, including its eponymous capital.

The Kherson region was one of four, also including Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, that Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 and is partly occupying. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw completely from those regions as part of any peace settlement, a notion Ukraine rejects out of hand.

Kherson city has not recently been a hotspot in the war, which is now deep into its third year, as the fiercest battles have been taking place in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Russia’s army is pushing hard to take ground there ahead of the harsh Ukrainian winter.

While Ukrainian forces are still holding Russian territory after a cross-border incursion into the Kursk region, Kyiv is still waiting to hear what further Western military and financial support it can count on.