Kremlin via Creative Commons
Russia unleashed an unprecedented bombardment in southern Ukraine overnight in what local officials described as a “massive attack” in the conflict which has continued to rage even as the international community’s attention has moved to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The Ukrainian Internal Affairs Ministry on Monday morning said Russia dropped at least “87 aerial bombs on populated areas of the Kherson region – the largest number for all time.” At least eight people were also injured in other Russian strikes carried out in the Odessa region further to the west on Sunday night.
Four high-rise apartment buildings in Kherson city were damaged in the first strikes on Sunday evening, the ministry said, but no casualties were reported. Later, at around 3 a.m. on Monday, the city was shelled for a second time, with two more private houses hit. Another 12 airstrikes took place through the night in the city of Beryslav and around 17 miles away in the village of Krynky across the Dnipro river.