On Thursday, Russian forces shelled the city of Kherson, which is already affected by flooding. The shelling hit near an evacuation point only hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the city to witness the destruction of a dam on the Dnipro River earlier this week. Witnesses described multiple strikes near Ship Square, the heart of the city, where hundreds of people were gathered; they scrambled for cover when the explosions rang out. Coordination of aid efforts was ongoing here, even though the square was itself flooded. Nine people were injured in the shelling incident, including one policeman, one emergency worker, and one German volunteer, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson regional military administration.
The shelling began around 2 p.m. local time, and witnesses heard people screaming as they ran for cover. A volunteer, Serhiy Ludensky, who was on a boat near Ship Square, recounted that there was nowhere to hide. Once the shelling stopped, the people on the boat broke down the door of a flooded building to wait for the explosions to end.
Journalist Kristina Berdynskykh was interviewing a teenager when the first explosions echoed over the water. They sought shelter, then moved to a safer place per advice from someone, finally settling in a building where they stayed for over half an hour.
Ukrainian officials alleged that Russian soldiers fired upon people trying to evacuate from the flooded city of Oleshky, which is situated on the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnipro River. Several areas in Kherson were targeted by Russian forces on Thursday. A New York Times photographer on a boat in the flooded Korabel neighbourhood observed at least two waves of shelling that were only 10 minutes apart. The second attack hit a barge close to a bridge that connects the island neighbourhood with the mainland.
Reporting was contributed by Brendan Hoffman.
