Kherson

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 8 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday likened the recapture of the southern city of Kherson to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War II, saying both were watersheds on the road to eventual victory. Ukrainian police, meanwhile, announced plans to investigate alleged Russian torture sites in now-retaken areas, and U.N. investigators said they'll look into enforced disappearances and detentions. Speaking via video link to a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, Zelenskyy said Kherson's liberation from eight months of Russian occupation was “reminiscent of many battles in the past, which became turning points in the wars." “It’s like, for example, D-Day — the landing of the Allies in Normandy. It was not yet a final point in the fight against evil, but it already determined the entire further course of events. … [Read more...] about Zelenskyy: Battle for Kherson was D-Day-like watershed

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 6 ANTONIVKA, Ukraine - The collapse of the Antonovsky Bridge earlier this month into the Dnieper River below marked the end of occupation in Kherson, as Russian forces fled the only regional capital they had captured since the start of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But less than two weeks after hundreds of Ukrainians waved flags in the streets of Kherson to celebrate the liberation of their city, the residents living in the shadow of that bridge - or what's left of it - have become sitting targets for renewed Russian attacks. From firing positions on the other side of the river, Russian forces are incessantly shelling the city they continue to claim is theirs. After what was initially a quiet retreat from Kherson, Russian troops appear to have regrouped on the east bank of the Dnieper in recent days, sending artillery, rockets and mortars roaring toward … [Read more...] about Russian bombs batter Kherson suburb in shadow of destroyed bridge

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 KHERSON, Ukraine - Few people paid attention to the drab concrete building, tucked away on a quiet residential street, that had long housed unruly youths behind a high wall and a spool of barbed wire. But after Russian soldiers swept into Kherson in early March, the anonymous building quickly became infamous. Black sedans with tinted windows and missing license plates arrived at all hours, disgorging Ukrainian detainees with bags over their heads. Screams began to escape the three-story structure, piercing the once-calm neighborhood, residents said. Sometimes, the gates would open, and a detainee would be dumped on the street, physically and mentally broken. Other captives were sent to a larger prison, or never seen again. "If there is a hell on Earth, it was here," said Serhiy, 48, who lives across the street and whom The Washington Post is only identifying by first name … [Read more...] about Witnesses recount detentions, torture, disappearances in occupied Kherson

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 14 KHERSON, Ukraine - When the Russians occupying her city came for the maritime college where she worked, Maryna Ivanovka refused to fall in line. The 60-year-old administrator was fired and banned from campus. Her house was raided and her phone, computers and passport were confiscated. A pro-Russian underling was installed in her place. Months later, the occupation of Kherson suddenly began to crumble. Russian soldiers fled. And so, too, did the woman who had taken her job and office. No sooner had Ukrainian authorities swept the college for booby traps than Ivanovka was back at her desk on Wednesday, sifting through the evidence her Russian-backed replacement had left behind: a ledger of employees who had worked for the Russians, a list of students who had voluntarily gone to Crimea and, peering from beside a potted … [Read more...] about In Kherson city, sympathies for Russia complicate reintegration into Ukraine

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 15 KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian sniper adjusted his scope and fired a.50-caliber bullet at a Russian soldier across the Dnieper River. Earlier, another Ukrainian used a drone to scan for Russian troops. Two weeks after retreating from the southern city of Kherson, Russia is pounding the town with artillery as it digs in across the Dnieper River. Ukraine is striking back at Russian troops with its own long-distance weapons, and Ukrainian officers say they want to capitalize on their momentum. The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow's most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the army is planning its next move, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman. Ukrainian forces can now strike deeper … [Read more...] about After Russian retreat, Ukrainian military plans next move

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 24 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's electricity grid chief warned of hours-long power outages Friday as Russia zeroed in on Ukraine's energy infrastructure with heavy artillery and missile attacks that have interrupted supplies to as much as 40% of the country's people at the onset of winter. Freezing temperatures are putting additional pressure on energy networks, grid operator Ukrenergo said. “You always need to prepare for the worst. We understand that the enemy wants to destroy our power system in general, to cause long outages,” Ukrenergo’s chief executive Volodymyr Kudrytskyi told Ukrainian state television. “We need to prepare for possible long outages, but at the moment we are introducing schedules that are planned and will do everything to ensure that the … [Read more...] about Russian strikes force Ukraine to face hours-long power cuts

KYIV, Ukraine - So many missiles were fired by Russia and Ukraine during the Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure Tuesday that the missile fragments that struck Poland could have been of either Russian or Ukrainian origin, Ukraine air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said. In an interview Friday, he described an intense battle during which at least 50 missiles were flying through the air within a matter of minutes near the Polish border in western Ukraine, with at least 20 fired by Russia and 30 fired by Ukrainian air defenses as Russia launched its biggest attack yet on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. They were among a total of 96 missiles fired by Russia that day, 77 of which were shot down, he said. "Anything could be the result of this air defense battle," he said, acknowledging that at least some of the missile parts could have been Ukrainian. His comments appeared to signal a further softening of Ukraine's insistence that the missile parts that killed two Polish grain … [Read more...] about Ukraine: Missile parts that landed in Poland could have been Ukrainian

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 11 KIVSHARIVKA, Ukraine - Not far from this village on the east bank of the Oskil River, Ukrainian forces have hit a wall of Russian resistance as they try to extend a counteroffensive that just two months ago was sweeping across nearby lands at a stunning clip. Andriy, a soldier with Ukraine's 92nd Mechanized Brigade, was not sure what to say on a recent day, when a group of Ukrainian intelligence officers showed up and asked about his unit's push toward Svatove, a small city in Luhansk region occupied since March. "How honest should I be?" Andriy said, declining to give his surname or rank because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. A long pause followed. "It has been very hard," he admitted. After a string of autumn victories for Kyiv, the war in Ukraine is grinding down to another inflection point. Over two and a … [Read more...] about Ukraine confronts tougher fight in push to extend battlefield wins

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 23 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from recently-liberated areas of the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, fearing that Russian damage to the infrastructure and the lack of heat, power and water is too severe for people to endure the upcoming winter, officials said Monday. The evacuations come as rolling blackouts plague most of the country. Residents of the two southern regions, which have been shelled for months by Russian forces, have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and and western parts of the country, said Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. The government will provide “transportation, accommodation, medical care," she said. The evacuations come more than a week after Ukraine … [Read more...] about Ukraine: Civilians should leave liberated areas this winter