Zelensky blasts Russian 'terror' after shelling kills at least five

Putin kills for ‘intimidation and pleasure’ on Christmas Eve: Russia unleashes artillery attack on crowded marketplace in newly recaptured Ukrainian city of Kherson killing at least five and injuring 20

• A string of shelling rained down around a busy Saturday market in Kherson city
• Kherson remains within reach of Moscow’s weaponry and under constant threat
• It comes after Putin finally referred to his brutal invasion of Ukraine as a ‘war’

President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted Russian ‘terror’ on Saturday after Vladimir Putin-ordered shelling left at least five dead and 20 injured in Kherson city.

‘Kherson. In the morning, on Saturday, on the eve of Christmas, in the central part of the city,’ Zelensky said on Telegram, publishing images of the attack and calling the attack ‘killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure.’

‘It is the real life of Ukraine… The world must see and understand what absolute evil we are fighting against,’ Zelensky said.

On the day marking ten months since the beginning of the war, a string of shelling rained down around a busy Saturday market in Kherson, where a fire erupted.

President Volodymyr Zelensky blasted Russian ‘terror’ on Saturday after Vladimir Putin-ordered shelling left at least five dead and 20 injured in Kherson city

On the day marking ten months since the beginning of the war, a string of shelling rained down around a busy Saturday market in Kherson, where a fire erupted

AFP journalists at the scene saw several bodies laying on the ground, including a man killed in his car near the market.

Another man, whose car had been blown up, had severe head injuries.

‘We know of at least five dead and 20 injured,’ the Deputy Head of Presidency Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram.

Despite Russia’s retreat from the southern port city in November, Kherson remains within reach of Moscow’s weaponry and under constant threat.

On December 15, Russian shelling killed two people including a Red Cross worker in Kherson and completely cut power in the southern city.

Zelensky sent Christmas wishes to the UK, as he thanked Rishi Sunak and the British public for their support in the country’s fight against Russia.

Earlier, the Prime Minister had tweeted a short video with the message: ‘This Christmas, we’re with you Ukraine.’

Zelensky tweeted back: ‘I’m grateful to Rishi Sunak and the entire British people! We feel your support. We feel the light and the warmth of your hearts.

AFP journalists at the scene saw several bodies laying on the ground, including a man killed in his car near the market

‘Light always prevails over darkness. Thus together, we will defeat evil and restore peace in Ukraine, Europe, and the world. Merry Christmas, friends!’

Zelensky has returned to Kyiv after a short visit to Washington to meet US President Joe Biden and to call on American politicians to continue to rally behind Ukraine.

It comes after Putin finally referred to his brutal invasion of Ukraine as a ‘war’ – breaking his own law against the use of the word.

Previously, the Russian tyrant had always labelled the bloody ten-month conflict a ‘special military operation’ and banned any reference to the true nature of his barbaric campaign.

Thousands of Russians have been punished, with some jailed and others fined, for describing the invasion as a ‘war’ – and now opposition leaders are demanding that Putin faces the same treatment.

Speaking to journalists, Putin said: ‘Our goal is not to unwind this flywheel of a military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war.

‘We strive for this and will strive for it.’

His comments appeared to hint at a desire to stop the conflict, but Ukraine and his Russian foes fear it is a trick.

Putin has finally referred to his brutal invasion of Ukraine as a ‘war’, breaking his own law

Instead, they want him to be prosecuted for breaking his own law preventing Russians using the word.

St Petersburg politician Nikita Yuferev has formally called on the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and Interior Ministry to initiate a criminal case against Putin for spouting ‘fakes about the army’.

‘Vladimir Putin called the war a war, saying our goal is ‘to end this war’,’ he said.

‘Several thousand people have already been convicted for such words about the war.’

Click here to watch Putin’s thugs raid Ukrainian orphanages to seize children 

 

Exiled Putin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky – once Russia’s richest man – highlighted Mr Yuferov’s demand on Twitter.

Putin has not gone through the formal legal mechanisms for declaring war against Ukraine – or against Nato, which he and his officials claim is fighting Russia.

This may be to avoid spooking Russians and to prevent domestic claims of warmongering against him.

The law has been used to crush dissent, with many foes fleeing abroad rather than risk jail in Russia.

Instead, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is supposed to be called a ‘special military operation’.

Ivan Drobotov – a close ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny – also appealed to the authorities about Putin’s use of the word war.

The US on Friday derisively called on Putin to acknowledge reality and pull troops from Ukraine after he finally called the conflict a ‘war.’

Since Putin ordered the invasion in February, Russia has officially spoken of a ‘special military operation’ and imposed a law that criminalizes what authorities call misleading terminology.

But at a news conference on Thursday, Putin himself used the word ‘war’ as he said that he hoped to end it as soon as possible.

‘Since February 24, the United States and rest of the world knew that Putin’s ‘special military operation’ was an unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine. Finally, after 300 days, Putin called the war what it is,’ a State Department spokesperson said.

‘As a next step in acknowledging reality, we urge him to end this war by withdrawing his forces from Ukraine.’

The State Department said that, whatever Putin’s terminology, ‘Russia’s aggression against its sovereign neighbor has resulted in death, destruction and displacement.’

‘The people of Ukraine no doubt find little consolation in Putin stating the obvious, nor do the tens of thousands of Russian families whose relatives have been killed fighting Putin’s war.’

A Russian court earlier this month sentenced an opposition politician, Ilya Yashin, to eight and a half years in prison under the new law over his ‘false information’ about the war.

Yashin had spoken of a ‘massacre’ in Bucha, the town near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv where the bullet-ridden bodies of Ukrainians in civilian clothes with hands tied behind their backs were discovered after Russian forces retreated.

An opposition lawmaker critical of the invasion, Nikita Yuferev, on Friday said he was seeking legal action against Putin for spreading ‘fake news’ over his ‘war’ reference.

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