KYIV – An apparent Russian artillery strike hit a market in the southern Ukraine city of Kherson on Tuesday, killing at least six people and wounding three others, authorities said, on a morning when Ukrainians across the country were observing a minute’s silence for their military and war dead.
The strike happened as shoppers made their way between stalls at the city center market, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said.
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He published a video showing the blurred corpses of people in civilian clothes lying near a stall with tomatoes and other vegetables.
Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s Office said the strike was “most likely” carried out by Russian artillery and hit close to a public transport stop.
It initially reported that seven people were killed but later corrected that toll to six, saying a severely wounded person thought to be dead was in intensive care at a local hospital.
The city has not recently been a hotspot in the war, now deep into its third year, as the fiercest battles have been taking place in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region where Russia’s army is pushing hard to take ground ahead of the winter.
The hilltop Donetsk town of Vuhledar, an important Ukrainian stronghold for the past two years and part of a belt of strategic garrisons, appears to be on the brink of falling into Russian hands.
Fighting for control of Vuhledar has advanced nearly into the town center, making it almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said on national television Tuesday.
There are still 107 people left in the town, although all children have been evacuated, he said.
Ukrainian forces have struck back with an incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region, but the government is waiting to hear what further Western military and financial support it can count on.
The Kherson region was one of four, also including Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, that Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 and is partly occupying. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw completely from those regions. Ukraine refuses.
Kherson fell into Russian hands after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. A Ukrainian counteroffensive recaptured western areas of the Kherson region, including the regional capital of the same name, nine months later.
The market attack came on the same morning as Ukraine celebrated Defenders Day, an annual public holiday that honors the country’s armed forces, veterans and war dead.
Across Ukraine, traffic stopped and people on sidewalks came to a halt at 9 a.m. to commemorate those defending Ukraine and those who have sacrificed their lives for the country.
People gathered at Independence Square in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, carrying pictures of fallen Ukrainian soldiers.
“For others, life goes on, but unfortunately for us it stopped when my brother’s heart stopped,” said Angelina Stashenko, holding a portrait of her 30-year-old brother, Denys Stashenko, who was killed in action in May in the Donetsk region.
“I hope future generations will never forget the price our loved ones paid for their freedom. … I hope Ukraine’s future will be bright,” his mother, Halyna Stashenko, said.
The national holiday was established in 2014 and first celebrated in 2015, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and occupation of parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
Though no official or reliable statistics are available, tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are believed to have died fighting Russia over the past 10 years.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used the occasion to appeal for further support from his country’s Western partners, following his visit last week to the United States.
“The daily Russian terror, the daily attempts to destroy life — all this can be stopped,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram following the strike on Kherson, adding that “Ukrainian strength and the determination of our partners must be greater than Putin’s desire to spread terror.”
In an address to the military, Zelenskyy thanked troops for their sacrifices.
“You dedicate yourselves so that Ukraine is not surrendered. Both those who were born warriors and those who became warriors. You changed your own lives so that our freedom remains unchanged,” Zelenskyy said.
“We see your courage. We see it every day and every night. On weekdays and weekends. In heat and frost. Always. Every minute. A minute whose value you know better than anyone else. A minute that can change absolutely everything,” he said.
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Vasilisa Stepanenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine