The attack struck an ammunition depot in the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region and killed 52 people, the Ukrainian army said. It came after Washington supplied Ukraine with advanced HIMARS mobile artillery systems that Kiev says its forces are using with increasing efficiency.
The city’s Russian-installed authorities gave a different version of events. Russian news agencies TASS reported that they said at least seven people had been killed and about 70 injured in the attack. A Russian-backed official in Kherson said at least seven people had died and civilians and civilian infrastructure had been affected.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
The area that affected Ukraine is an area that Russia seized after the February 24 launch of what Moscow called “a special military operation” in its former Soviet neighbor and is of strategic importance with access to the Black Sea, a once thriving agricultural industry and a location just north of Russia-annexed Crimea.
Ukrainian government officials have discussed efforts to rally up to a million troops and their goal of retaking southern parts of the country now under Russian control.
“Based on the results of our missile and artillery units, the enemy lost 5️2 (people), an Msta-B howitzer, a mortar and seven armored and other vehicles, as well as an ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka,” the southern military command said. from Ukraine. said in a statement.
Unverified videos on social media showed smoke and sparks followed by a huge fireball erupting in the night sky. Images released by Russian state media showed a wasteland covered with rubble and the remains of buildings.
A Russian-backed local government official said Ukraine had used HIMARS missiles and destroyed warehouses containing saltpeter, a chemical compound that can be used to make fertilizer or gunpowder. The result was a big explosion. The Russian news agency TASS later reported that the fires had been extinguished.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the type of weapon used.
“Many people are still under the rubble. The injured are being taken to hospital, but many people are trapped in their apartments and houses,” said Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Russian-installed military-civilian administration of the Kakhovka district. TASS says. He said warehouses, shops, a pharmacy, gas stations and a church were affected.
COUNTERATTACK PLANS
The conflict has blocked access to Ukraine’s grain and cooking oil, exacerbating a global food crisis. More than 20 million tons of grain are trapped in silos in the Black Sea’s main port, Odessa.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said military delegations from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey will meet UN officials in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss a possible deal to resume safe exports of Ukrainian grain.
“We are indeed working hard, but there is still a way to go,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters.
As Russia blocks major Black Sea ports in Ukraine, Ukraine’s Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Vaskov said grain shipments through the Danube had increased with the reopening of the Bystre Canal, which provides access to small inland ports.
Ukraine expects monthly grain exports to increase by 500,000 tons, Vaskov said. Ukraine is also negotiating with Romania and the European Commission to increase supplies through the Sulina Canal, he said.
Russia has accused Ukraine of shelling its own people in an area where it has lost control. Ukraine says it is evacuating as many people as possible from areas seized by Russian forces in what it and the West have portrayed as an attempted imperial-style land grab by Moscow.
Kiev and the West say Russia’s own attacks have been indiscriminate, killing civilians and leveling city areas.
Moscow denies targeting civilians, but many Ukrainian population centers are left in ruins as Europe’s worst conflict since World War II approaches the five-month mark.
The UN human rights agency said on Tuesday that 5,024 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began, adding that the real toll was likely much higher.
Russia has tried to introduce the ruble in Kherson and is offering Russian passports to locals. Russian-installed officials also say they plan to hold a referendum on the region’s accession to Russia, but have not set a date yet.
Ukraine is bracing for what it expects to be a major new Russian offensive in the east, where Moscow says it is determined to take control of the entire industrial Donbas region.
Russian forces, which completed the capture of Luhansk province in the Donbas earlier this month, have shelled parts of neighboring Donetsk province for weeks.
Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said there was a significant build-up of Russian troops, particularly in the Bakhmut and Siversky areas, and around Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
The entire frontline in the region was under constant shelling as Russian troops attempted to break through but were repulsed, he said.