Moscow, Russia | AFP |
Moscow-installed authorities in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region Friday said Kyiv forces killed four people when they shelled the Antonivskiy bridge over the Dnipro river used for evacuations.
“Four people were killed,” pro-Moscow official Kirill Stremousov said on Telegram. “The city of Kherson, like a fortress, is preparing for its defence.”
A Ukrainian military spokeswoman Nataliya Gumenyuk denied Kyiv’s forces had killed civilians.
“We do not hit critical infrastructure. We do not hit peaceful settlements or the local population,” Gumenyuk said in televised comments on Friday.
Pro-Russia forces have urged civilians to cross to the left bank of the Dnipro river in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive in what Kyiv has branded as “deportations” of Ukrainian citizens.
The Russian-backed administration of Kherson overnight said Kyiv fired “12 HIMARS rockets at a civilian crossing near the Antonivsky bridge.”
Russian state television aired footage of a damaged car and traffic waiting to cross the river.
On Thursday, Stremousov said 15,000 people had crossed the river in evacuations organised by the Moscow-backed forces.
He insisted that Russia will not give up Kherson — the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces early in their offensive in March.
“Kherson will hold on until the last (man), believe me nobody is intending to give up the city.”
© Agence France-Presse
