Sawt Falasteen - Russian shelling in Kherson kills two: governor

The city of Kherson was in November recaptured by Ukrainian forces during a Kyiv counter-offensive.

"The enemy again attacked the residential quarters of Kherson," the governor, Yaroslav Yanushevich, said on messaging app Telegram, adding the Russian forces hit a maternity ward, a cafe and apartment buildings on Saturday.

"Last night, two people were killed due to Russian shelling," Yanushevich said, adding that five others had been wounded.

He said the region was attacked with artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, tanks and mortars.

Before their retreat in November Russian forces destroyed the city's basic utilities infrastructure, and have since repeatedly shelled Kherson.

In the Black Sea city of Odessa, emergency shutdowns were continuing following Russian drone attacks, Sergiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the regional administration, said on Sunday.

On Saturday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 1.5 million people were left without power in the region of Odessa after Russia used Iranian drones to strike the city and surrounding territory.

On Sunday, regional governor Maksym Marchenko said power was "gradually" returning to Odessa and that 300,000 people had no electricity.

Authorities also said that "interruptions of water supply" had taken place due to power outages.

Odessa was a favourite holiday destination for many Ukrainians and Russians before President Vladimir Putin sent troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said on Saturday that Russian forces had targeted critical infrastructure in southern Ukraine, using "a significantly higher number of Iranian-made drones than in previous weeks".

This could indicate "that Russia has recently received or expects soon to receive a new shipment of drones from Iran", the think tank said.

Iran stands accused by Western powers of supplying drones to Russia, which has rejected the claims.

W.AbuLaban--SF-PST