Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian soldiers of committing war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson, part of which was retaken by the Ukrainian military last week following Russia’s withdrawal.
“Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and military personnel have been found,” Zelenskiy said in his late-night video address on Sunday.
“The Russian army left behind the same barbarism as in other regions of the country it entered,” he said.
Reuters could not verify his claims. Russia denies that its troops intentionally target civilians.
Since the beginning of the invasion on 24 February, mass graves have been found in several locations in Ukraine, including civilian bodies with evidence of torture discovered in the Kharkiv region and in Bucha, near Kiev. Ukraine has accused Russian troops of committing the crimes.
In October, a United Nations commission claimed that war crimes had been committed in Ukraine and that Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human rights violations in the first weeks of the war.
Ukrainian troops arrived Friday in the center of the southern Kherson region after Russia abandoned the only regional capital it had captured since Moscow launched its invasion.
Villagers with flowers waited on the Kherson road to greet Ukrainian soldiers on Saturday, when they arrived to secure control of the right bank of the Dnieper River.
This is Moscow’s third major retreat in the war and the first to involve the cession of such a large occupied city to a major Ukrainian counteroffensive with the US-supplied high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS).
The United States will announce new sanctions on Monday against a transnational network of individuals and companies that have been working to acquire military technologies for Russia’s war in Ukraine, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
Yellen told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali that the sanctions would target 14 individuals and 28 entities, including financial facilitators, but declined to elaborate on their location.
Russia has managed to acquire drones from Iran that have been used to attack cities and electrical infrastructure in Ukraine.
Kherson Demining
The artillery exchanges that echoed over Kherson on Sunday failed to deter crowds of jubilant residents, waving flags and sheltering against the cold, from gathering in the city’s main square.
“Now we are happy, but we are all afraid of shelling from the left bank,” said Yana Smyrnova, 35, a singer, referring to Russian canyons on the east side of the Dnipro River, which passes near the city.
The southern command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Monday that Russian soldiers were still “inflicting fire damage on our troops and unoccupied settlements along the right bank of the Dnieper (river).”
Kherson Oblast Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said authorities had decided to maintain the curfew from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. and ban people from leaving or entering the city as a security measure.
“The enemy has undermined all critical infrastructure,” Yanushevych told Ukrainian television. “We’re trying to get together within a few days and (then) open the city,” he said.
In an online post, Yanushevych warned the population about reports of humanitarian aid arriving in Kherson’s Freedom Square and urged people to stay away from the city center as demining operations were to proceed there.
Zelensky also warned Khersonians about the presence of Russian mines. “I ask you please not to forget that the situation in the Kherson region remains very dangerous,” he said.
Russian withdrawal
Residents said the Russians had gradually withdrawn over the past two weeks, but their final exit only became clear when the first Ukrainian troops entered Kherson on Thursday.
“It was gradual,” said Alexii Sandakov, a 44-year-old cameraman. “First his special police left. Then the ordinary police and their administration. Then fewer soldiers began to be seen in the superme.And then their military vehicles left.”
Many residents interviewed by Reuters said they were trying to minimize their contact with Russians and knew of people who were detained and mistreated for displaying any expression of Ukrainian patriotism.
Sandakov said Russian troops had looted the homes of Ukrainian soldiers who left the city before the takeover and were inspecting the bodies of young men passing through checkpoints for tattoos of Ukrainian nationalist groups.
Russia has denied abuses against or attacks on civilians since the war began.
Eastern Ukraine
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said it had reclaimed 179 settlements and 4,500 square kilometers along the Dnieper River since the beginning of the week.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces reported heavy fighting along the Eastern Front in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“The enemy does not stop shelling the settlements and positions of our units along the front line. (…) It continues to attack critical infrastructure and civilian housing,” the General Staff said Monday.
He said that in the past 24 hours, the Russian military launched four missiles and 13 airstrikes, as well as about 60 rocket salvage system strikes.
In response, Ukrainian forces attacked Russian positions 16 times, destroying or damaging 10 areas containing personnel, weapons and military equipment, he said.
Reuters was unable to verify these reports.
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