Ukraine: Russia is shelling cleared areas in Kherson

The city is as good as liberated, the Russians are on the other side of the river. The people of Cherson “never gave up on Ukraine,” says President Zelenskyy.

NAfter the withdrawal of the Russian soldiers, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj reported that his own troops were still advancing towards the regional capital of Cherson in the south of the country. “Today is a historic day,” said Zelenskyj in his daily video address on Friday evening. At the same time, his country has to defend the newly recaptured territory against new Russian attacks.

Meanwhile, the EU wants to provide financial support for Ukrainian freight traffic, which has been badly affected by the war. With food shortages looming, the United Nations is calling on countries around the world to remove obstacles to fertilizer exports from Russia.

The city of Kherson has not yet been completely liberated from the “enemy presence,” Zelensky said. However, Ukrainian special forces are already on site. Residents also independently removed Russian symbols from streets and buildings. Zelenskyj also published a video that is supposed to show motorcades and cheering choirs for the approaching Ukrainian soldiers. “The people of Kherson have been waiting. They never gave up on Ukraine,” said the head of state.

Under pressure from the Ukrainian counter-offensives, Russia announced last Wednesday that it was withdrawing its troops from the part of Cherson north-west of the Dnipro River. The regional capital of the same name, Cherson, is also located there. For the first time since the beginning of the war, Russia has lost a larger part of an area that it had annexed in violation of international law and, against this background, designated as its own state territory.