Russia bombed a busy marketplace in the recently-recaptured city of Kherson on Christmas Eve “for the sake of intimidation and pleasure”, Ukraine’s president said.
At least eight people were killed and 58 wounded, officials said, when shells hit the city centre on Saturday morning leaving bloodied corpses scattered on the ground and shops burning.
Fresh from a trip to Washington, President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack as an act of “absolute evil” as he published graphic pictures of the aftermath.
“These are not military facilities. This is not a war according to the rules defined. It is terror, it is killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure,” he said.
The images from the scene showed cars ablaze and bodies strewn across the streets, some bloodied and twisted from the impact of the bombs.
Witnesses were seen with hands to their mouths as they surveyed the aftermath in shock, while medics hurried the injured into ambulances on stretchers.
Alongside the images, Mr Zelensky wrote: “Social networks will most likely mark these photos as ‘sensitive content’.
“But this is not sensitive content – it is the real life of Ukraine and Ukrainians. The world must see what absolute evil we are fighting against.”
Ukrainian officials said a missile landed next to a supermarket by Kherson’s Freedom Square on Saturday. They noted the large presence of civilians in the area, which included a young girl who was selling phone SIM cards.
Bob Seely, the MP for the Isle of Wight who co-chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Ukraine, was on the outskirts of Kherson as it came under fire on Friday.
