December 25, 2022

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, denounced this Saturday an act of Russian “terror” to “intimidate” the Ukrainians, following a bombing in the center of Jershon (south), that left at least seven dead and five injured, on Christmas Eve.

“In the morning, on Saturday, Christmas Eve, in the center of the city. They are not military installations. It is not a war according to defined rules. It is terror, it is killing to intimidate and [tomar] pleasure”, criticized the Ukrainian president on social networks.

According to the Ukrainian presidency and regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich, “the attack [ruso] it cost the lives of 7 people and 58 inhabitants were injured, 18 of whom are serious.” A previous balance of the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office reported 8 dead and 17 wounded.

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“The world must see and understand what absolute evil we are fighting once morest,” Zelensky lamented, once once more calling the Russian army “terrorist.” And he stressed: “This is the true life of Ukraine and Ukrainians” since the war began, ten months ago.

In Ankara, Turkish Defense Minister Halusi Akar, whose country has mediated in the conflict, said that “this war does not seem to end easily.” In Kherson, an AFP team he saw many inert bodies on the ground.

“Rescue services tried to save him but he was no longer breathing,” said a woman whose husband, Oleksii, was killed in the shelling. She crouched next to him, her blank stare, she clutched the bloody hands of her husband.

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According to Leonid Tataryn, a 38-year-old resident, “there was a shelling in a shop and then in the market” central and in the immediate vicinity.

“I was already dead”

Oleksander Kudriashov, 43, mourned the death of “Liosha”, a man who “had worked here for 20 years or more”, selling meat. When the attack took place, Liosha “had gone outside to have a cigarette,” Oleksander said. “We have dragged his body, he was already dead”.

Near the Kherson market, an AFP reporter saw a man seriously injured in the head, his car was destroyed by the blast. An elderly woman, dressed in a red coat, lay dead a few meters away, her arms outstretched.

There were flames in the market, a place frequented on Saturday morning and located in the heart of Kherson, a city that the Ukrainian army recaptured in November, in the middle of a successful counteroffensive, following eight months of Russian occupation. But ever since the city has been the target of Russian attacks, especially on its energy facilities.

“As families in Europe, North America and elsewhere prepare their celebratory dinners, think of Ukraine, which is fighting evil right now,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.

In the East, the Russians continue to “regularly” bomb Bakhmut, a city that Moscow forces have been trying to take since the summer, the Ukrainian presidency said on Saturday. The day before, the city center was “bombed several times,” he said.

more American aid

To counter the Russian offensive, kyiv has demanded more financial and military aid from the Westerners. On Friday, two days following Zelensky’s visit to Washington, The US Congress approved an extension of the federal budget that plans to allocate 45,000 million dollars to Ukraine.

“Really, it’s not regarding, as the Ukrainian president said the other night, regarding charity. It’s regarding security, it’s regarding working together,” said Nancy Pelosi, outgoing Speaker of the House of Representatives.

By 2023, kyiv will be able to count on 2.5 billion euros ($2.66 billion) in aid from the Netherlands, mainly for its armed forces, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Friday.

The Russian invasion is also strongly affecting the Ukrainian economic activity, today focused almost entirely on the war effort.

The cereal harvest in the country, one of the main grain producers in the world, will fall by regarding 40% this year compared to 2021, according to an estimate by professionals in the sector.

Secondly, “two mercenaries” and “two Russian soldiers” who had “tortured” three Ukrainian soldiers in the Izum region were sentenced to 11 years in prison in Ukraine, the Prosecutor’s Office of the former Soviet republic said on Saturday.

The Ukrainian soldiers “were kidnapped and held in a leisure center without water or food,” the Prosecutor’s Office explained in a statement. “The occupants beat one [de los soldados] with a hammer,” he added. According to the statement, “all four men admitted their guilt and apologized.”