At least seven people have been killed and 58 others injured in Russian artillery bombardment of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on the eve of Christmas, the Associated Press and AFP reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who returned from a visit to Washington, D.C., posted photos of burning cars, dead bodies on the streets and destroyed buildings in Kherson on his social media account on the 24th local time, saying, "This is what real life in Kherson looks like." said.
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"The whole world needs to see what absolute evil we are fighting against," Zelensky said after calling it "an act of terror in the heart of the city on Christmas Eve."
Kirilo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that Russia's shelling of Kherson killed seven people and wounded 58, of which 16 were in serious condition.
Kherson authorities claimed that Russian forces had shelled Kherson 74 times the previous day, killing five people and wounding 17 others.
Kherson is a strategic point connecting the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine, which was forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014, and the eastern Donbas region occupied by pro-Russian separatist forces by land.
Ukraine regained Kherson, a key southern city lost to Russia at the beginning of the war, in about eight months last month.
The retreating Russians continue to shell Kherson's key infrastructure every day.
It's exactly 10 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, and it's Christmas Eve, but Russia hasn't stopped its attacks on Kherson.