At least four people were killed and nine others wounded in Russian shelling in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson over the past 24 hours, regional authorities said on Sunday.
Russian troops fired 71 shells at Kherson, hitting the city center, residential areas, medical and educational institutions and “critical infrastructure facilities,” Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the regional military administration wrote on Telegram.
Prokudin said an elderly couple in their 80s and a child were among the victims.
Ukrainian forces recaptured Kherson following several months of Russian occupation in November last year, but Russian forces continue to shell the area.
Separately, Kyiv said that Ukraine’s air defense shot down 14 of 15 Russian drones launched overnight.
“Ukraine’s Air Force and defense forces destroyed 14 Shaheds in Mykolayiv, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhya, Dnipro, and Khmelnytskiy regions,” the Ukrainian Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine officials had warned that Russia would likely step up its attacks on Ukraine this winter.
Authorities had also cautioned that the attacks could be focused on damaging Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
The drones were launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsky in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai district.
There were no reports of damage or casualties as the results of the drone strikes that the air force said were mostly launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov in Russia.
There were 81 combat clashes on the front line over the past 24 hours, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said, claiming that Ukrainian troops repelled 17 Russian attacks near Kupyansk district of the Kharkiv region and 11 assaults near the Bakhmut area in Donetsk Province.
“Our soldiers are firmly holding the defense in the Avdiyivka area [in Donetsk Province], inflicting significant losses” to Russian forces, the General Staff said.
There were no immediate comments by Russian authorities.
Meanwhile, for the first time since 1917, Ukraine plans to celebrate Christmas on December 25 instead of January 7, the date that Russia celebrates.
The move of the holiday reflects another Ukrainian cultural shift away from Russia.
While both Russia and the West use the Gregorian calendar, Russia still follows the Julian calendar for some religious practices. Kyiv’s switch is a sign of its continuing effort to align itself with Europe.
In his daily address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that as the week before Christmas ends, Ukraine remains strong. He cited the downing of three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft Friday on the southern front, hailing it as a success in Ukraine’s 22-month-old war against Russia’s invasion.
“This week once again demonstrated the effectiveness of bolstering our air defense. It is not only for protecting cities and villages from Russian drones and missiles but also for front-line operations,” he said, adding that “the capability to shoot down Russian fighter jets is one of the keys to ending this war justly.”
The fate of the Russian pilots and crew members was not immediately clear.
The Russian military made no mention of the incident.
Zelenskyy thanked all the partners that support Ukraine’s war effort. He expressed his gratitude to Germany for its military aid as well as to the Netherlands for an aid package of more than $110 million and Finland for an equivalent aid amount.
He said Kyiv is awaiting the approval of a U.S. support package for the next year and added, “I am grateful to representatives of both parties for understanding that decisions need to be made.”
Zelenskyy also gave thanks to the U.S. for its new round of economic sanctions against Russia and its collaborators.
He expressed his gratitude to the Ukrainian soldiers in “combat brigades on all fronts, from Kharkiv to Kherson. At the border – those who defend against Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups, those who eliminate Shahed drones, and those who hold our frontlines. I thank each and every one of you!” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian and Russian troops are both facing an adversary of another kind on the ground, the British Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily intelligence update on Ukraine: “exceptional levels of rat and mice infestation in some sectors of the front line.”
The rodents will “likely seek shelter in vehicles and defensive positions,” the ministry said, which could also affect soldiers’ morale, according to the report.
The update said the jump in the rodent population is likely the result of this year’s mild autumn, “along with ample food from fields left fallow due to the fighting.”
The British ministry also said the rodents could also gnaw the cables of military equipment, just as they did in the same region during World War II.
Unverified reports indicate, the ministry said, that Russian troops are beginning to experience a growing number of cases of illness, which the Russian troops blame on the rodents.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributed to this report. Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.