At least two people have been killed and 10 more wounded after Ukrainian missile strikes hit a “civilian crossing” near the Antonivskyi Bridge in Kherson late Thursday, according to the southern region’s Russian-appointed chairman.
“Unfortunately, today after 11 p.m. the Armed Forces of Ukraine inflicted a strike on the civilian crossing,” Sergey Eliseev said on Telegram, adding the civilians were on the crossing at that time of night “because a lot of residents of Kherson region wish to leave the territory to survive the aggravation of the military situation.”
Eliseev said he went to the scene of the strikes, and later to the regional hospital where the injured had been taken with shrapnel wounds and head injuries.
The Russian-backed Kherson region administration said on its Telegram channel that Ukraine’s military “fired 12 HIMARS at the civilian crossing near the Antonivskyi Bridge, which also operates at night due to the large number of people wishing to travel to the left bank of the Dnipro River.”
Ukraine’s military is yet to comment.
Some context: The alleged missile strikes come as fighting escalates in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, where the pro-Moscow authorities are trying to “relocate” up to 60,000 civilians. Kherson is among four regions of Ukraine that Russia is attempting to annex in violation of international law.
It also comes after days of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that have caused fatalities and the loss of at least 40% of the country’s power-generating capacity.
