Ukrainian missile kills three civilians – local authorities
Ukrainian forces have struck a residential building in the town of Novaya Kakhovka, located to the east of the city of Kherson. The attack left at least three civilians dead and six gravely wounded, according to the head of the Russian-controlled military-civilian administration, Vladimir Leontyev.
“Six people were taken in critical condition to the hospital, they have serious chest injuries and traumatic limb amputation, they are alive,” Leontyev told Sputnik News.
Images from the scene show that a projectile hit the four-story building directly on the roof, flattening an entire section.
In recent weeks, Novaya Kakhovka, Kherson, and the nearby Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant have been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian shelling in a bid to dislodge the Russian troops controlling the locations, and to disrupt logistics by disabling bridges over the Dnepr River.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that the attacks, particularly those targeting the Zaporozhye facility, threaten a Chernobyl-style nuclear disaster for the whole of Europe and beyond. Kiev, along with some Western officials and media, however, have claimed that Russian forces themselves have been shelling the nuclear plant, despite the fact it is already under their control.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
