In a clip widely circulated on social media, a government administration building at the center of town is seen smoldering under a plume of smoke after a Russian assault on a number of civilian targets across the country, Ukraine said.
According to a daily update posted by the General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces on Facebook, Russian forces have launched a series of attacks on a number of civilian targets across the country in recent days.
Major incidents included strikes on the cities of Kurakhov and Konstantinivka in the Donetsk region, along with nearly a dozen strikes on several targets in the country’s southern reaches. These included the city of Kherson, a strategic port city at the mouth of the Dnipro River that, until recently, had been under active occupation by Russian forces.
Some social media users in Ukraine called the strikes vengeance against the city’s residents, whom reports claimed actively resisted occupation after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of the region along with several other areas earlier in the war that began February 24.
The recent attack on the administration center was another incident in a string of assaults on the city center, which Ukrainian forces liberated from Russian control in mid-November.
The site of the attack was where the Ukrainian flag was raised to commemorate the victory there, causing some to suggest there was a psychological aspect to the attack.
“Russian missile hit the Kherson Regional Administration,” Maria Adveeda, research director at the European Expert Association in Ukraine, wrote on Twitter after the strike. “This is the same building where a month ago Ukrainians so happily raised our flag. It has no military value. Pure act of terror and vengeance. Which only shows how weak Russia is.”
And even as Ukraine maintains control of the city, Russian forces have continued a prolonged assault there, hoping to regain ground in the key entry point into the country’s interior.
Since Ukraine retook the city, officials have estimated Russia’s bombardments have killed more than 40 civilians, including at least one child, according to estimates reported by Sky News in the U.K.
The constant barrage, Pentagon officials said in recent days, is largely intended not to retake territory but to attempt to hold the Ukrainian position as its forces analyze their capability to carry out offensive operations on targets in Russia.
While Kherson remains under Ukrainian control, Russian forces have begun putting renewed focus on targets like Bakhmut to make much-needed gains following a series of losses, resulting in heavy casualties.
“Based on the way that Russia has prosecuted this campaign, you know, their way of combat is through heavy artillery strikes and throwing forces at the problem,” a senior Pentagon official told reporters this week.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
