KYIV – Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern Kherson region killed 16 people on Wednesday, local prosecutors said, as the authorities introduced a curfew in the main city of Kherson starting on Friday.
The strikes came as Ukraine prepares for a spring offensive.
The city of Kherson – from which Russian forces withdrew last November – lies near the front line in southern Ukraine.
“A massive attack by the occupiers on civilians in the Kherson region: death toll rises to 16,” the Kherson region prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
It said 12 of the victims were killed in the city of Kherson and that “around 22 civilians” were wounded.
“On the morning of May 3, Russian troops began the massive shelling of the city of Kherson and the region’s settlements,” the prosecutors said.
Officials earlier said three people were killed in a strike on Kherson’s only working hypermarket.
The prosecutors said three employees of a “power engineering team” were killed by shelling between the nearby villages of Stepanivka and Muzykivka.
Officials also announced on Wednesday that Kherson will be under curfew for 58 hours from Friday.
