Bombings in Ukraine’s Kherson region kill 7, including newborn baby girl
Russia’s renewed bombings along Ukraine’s Kherson region have killed seven people, including a 23-day-old baby girl, officials said.
Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry said civilians — including a couple with the infant as well as a 12-year-old boy — were among the casualties Sunday on the border with Crimea — shortly after the Kremlin swore revenge for bombings at a key bridge linking Russia to the annexed territory.
Ukrainian officials said the family and a neighbor were killed along the Dnieper River, while two other men died in blasts in the nearby village of Stanislav.
Horrific photos from the aftermath show Ukrainian firefighters putting out blazes at the homes while carrying out corpses wrapped in blankets and sheets.
At least 20 people were wounded by the Russian artillery shellings over the weekend, according to Kherson regional officials.
The bombings came after Russia accused Ukraine of launching missiles at the 12-mile Kerch bridge, which opened in 2018 and connected Russia to Crimea four years after its violent annexation.
Ukraine officials did not comment on the attack, which would have severely damaged Moscow’s resupply route had it not been intercepted by Russia’s defense system.
Despite the bridge escaping harm, Russian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Saturday vowed swift revenge against Kyiv.
“There can be no justification for such barbaric actions and they will not go unanswered,” Zakharova said in a statement.
Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor for Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Minister, condemned the bombings along the country’s southern border as actions of a “terrorist state,” while also appearing to defend attacks against the Kerch bridge.
Gerashchenko said not only would the fall of the bridge be symbolic, but it would also devastate Moscow’s military advancements on the Kherson region.
“The Bridge and its railway line are extremely important for the logistics of the Russian army, so it is repaired quickly and heavily protected,” he tweeted Sunday. “If it is damaged, then the enemy’s southern grouping will be left without supplies.”
Along with the bombings in Kherson, Russia also fired warning shots Sunday at a merchant vessel in the Black Sea appearing to belong with the nation of Palau, the first such attack since the Kremlin exited a UN-backed grain deal last month.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed the shots were to force the ship to stop for inspection of “prohibited goods.”
With Post wires
