Six dead in market attack as Ukraine remembers war dead

Six individuals have been killed in a neighborhood market space within the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Kherson.

In keeping with regional authorities the Russian shelling occurred at round 09:00 (06:00 GMT). That was simply as individuals throughout Ukraine had stopped to recollect their warfare useless.

“Defenders Day” is held yearly in honour of the armed forces.

The shelling, close to a neighborhood market and bus cease, was in all probability from Russian “barrel artillery”, based on the area’s prosecutor’s workplace.

One picture, from native media, confirmed a physique mendacity on the pavement by bins of fruit.

Moscow has repeatedly denied focusing on civilians.

Preliminary stories mentioned seven had died medical doctors have been capable of save one one who had been “thought-about useless”.

Kherson was occupied by Russian troops shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and was liberated by Ukraine in November.

It nonetheless lies extraordinarily near the frontline with fierce preventing on the opposite facet of the Dnipro River.

It was at 08:55 on Tuesday that folks in Kyiv and all through Ukraine noticed a10-minute silence for Defenders Day.

A small crowd had gathered at a memorial web site on Maidan Sq. in Kyiv.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, 1000’s of Ukrainian flags have been planted right here alongside framed footage of fallen troopers.

Halyna’s 29 12 months previous son, Kostyantyn, was killed preventing within the Kherson area in July 2022.

“He was a platoon chief, a junior lieutenant,” Halyna informed the BBC, clinging on to a photograph of him, holding again tears.

“He was a really good man. His comrades got here not too long ago and informed how he fought and the way he died. It’s very exhausting for me.”

Because the silence started, we watched as automobiles stopped in the midst of a busy street and other people stood solemnly within the streets in a second that felt charged with emotion, sorrow and intense nationwide pleasure.

Quickly, the sound of the Ukrainian nationwide anthem might be heard echoing by the nonetheless streets.

It was at round that point that the strike on Kherson metropolis befell in southern Ukraine.

Individually, 21 individuals have reportedly been wounded as a result of Russian glide bombs hitting residential and industrial areas within the metropolis of Zaporizhzhia.

On the entrance line in Ukraine’s east, Russian troops proceed to press exhausting and Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin has mentioned they’ve virtually reached the centre of the city of Vuhledar.

Simply 107 persons are mentioned to stay within the bombed out city with kids already evacuated and humanitarian assist “virtually unimaginable” to ship – based on Filashkin.

As a part of Defenders Day, President Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to those that had been killed within the preventing, saying: “You sacrifice yourselves in order that Ukraine doesn’t must be sacrificed.”

Yuliya’s accomplice, Bogdan, served as a military medic treating individuals throughout the devastating siege of Mariupol earlier than he was captured by Russian troops.

“I’ve a daughter, she’s 5 years previous so I believe she helps me quite a bit as a result of she’s my sense now to dwell. I have to be robust. And I have to be now a mom and a father in a single particular person.”

Bogdan was one in all dozens who died within the July 2022 explosion at Olenivka jail, which Kyiv believes was a deliberate try by Russia to destroy proof of warfare crimes though Moscow blamed Ukrainian missiles.

For numerous Ukrainian households, remembrance is a personal act, in addition to a public one.

Yuliya says she needs to her daughter to recollect her father: “What he did for us and every part we now have now’s due to him. He was defending us.”