Russian Shelling Kills 5 In Kharkiv Amid Ukraine Offensive
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russian shelling reportedly killed at least five people in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, after a Moscow-installed leader fled a region where Ukrainian troops launched a counter-offensive.
Seven people were also reportedly injured as at least eight missiles damaged residential buildings and recreation areas near the center of Kharkiv, which is in northeastern Ukraine.
It came as Ukraine’s military fought back hundreds of miles away to the southwest in the Russian-occupied Kherson region.
Kirill Stremousov, appointed deputy head of the Russian-backed Kherson military-civilian administration, published regular video updates to state-owned Russian news outlets.
But a Ukrainian activist, Serhii Sternenko, says Stremousov is no longer in Kherson and has instead been filming outside.
His recent video footage appeared near the Cathedral of Annunciation in Voronezh in Russia, which can be seen in the background. Voronezh is almost 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Kherson and about 190 kilometers (120 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
OFFICIAL KILLED
Stremousov’s apparent departure from Kherson comes after another Russian-appointed regional official, Alexei Kovalev, was reportedly shot dead in his home over the weekend.
In recent months, several Ukrainian nationals appointed by Russian forces in occupied territory have been killed or wounded in apparent partisan attacks, several sources say.
That has apparently prompted Russia to increase attacks, including against civilian targets though Moscow denies wrongdoing.
As clashes continued, a team of inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog arrived in Kyiv en route to inspect the Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant, Europe’s largest, in southern Ukraine.
The European Union’s executive European Commission said it would donate 5.5 million potassium iodide tablets to Ukraine. It comes amid fears that fighting in the area of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant could lead to nuclear catastrophe.
Yet there was some hopeful news, too as the first shipment of grain from Ukraine to the drought-stricken Horn of Africa since the war docked in Djibouti. The United Nations chartered vessel Brave Commander is carrying 23,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat and will soon be followed by another with 7,000 tonnes.
The total shipment, which will be unloaded in Djibouti and transported to Ethiopia, is enough to feed 1.5 million people for a month, officials say.
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