Image – AP
Kherson – Ukraine accused accused Russian soldiers of committing war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson, with Zelensky saying they were “the same atrocities as in other regions of our country”. The expected atrocities came to light when Russian forces were forced to pull out from the strategic southern city of Kherson and its surrounds..
"Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Sunday.
"The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered," he said.
Russia denies its troops intentionally target civilians.
A United Nations commission in October said war crimes were committed in Ukraine and that Russian forces were responsible for the "vast majority" of human rights violations in the early weeks of the war.
Mass graves have been found in several places across Ukraine since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, including civilian bodies showing evidence of torture discovered in the Kharkiv region and in Bucha, near Kyiv. Ukraine has accused Russian troops of committing the crimes.
The end of Russia’s eight-month occupation of Kherson city has sparked days of celebration but also exposed a humanitarian emergency, with residents living without power and water and short of food and medicines. Russia still controls about 70% of the wider Kherson region.
Ukrainian police have called on residents to help identify people who collaborated with Russian forces.
Residents said departing Russian troops plundered the city, carting away loot as they withdrew last week. They also wrecked key infrastructure before retreating across the wide Dnieper River to its east bank. One Ukrainian official described the situation in Kherson as “a humanitarian catastrophe.”
A view shows the destroyed Antonivskyi bridge over the Dnipro river after Russia's retreat from Kherson, in Kherson, Ukraine/REUTERS
Reconnecting the electricity supply is the priority, with gas supplies already assured, Kherson regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said.
In an online post Yanushevych warned people about reports of humanitarian aid arriving in Kherson's Freedom Square and urged people to steer clear of the centre of the city as demining operations were due to proceed there.
Ukraine’s retaking of Kherson was the latest in a series of battlefield embarrassments for the Kremlin. It came some six weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the Kherson region and three other provinces in southern and eastern Ukraine — in breach of international law — and declared them Russian territory.
-Reuters/AP