Civilians fleeing Kherson after the Russian attacks

Upbeat images were broadcast from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in November, after the city was liberated from Russia after months of occupation. Now hundreds of people are fleeing the city, which has been repeatedly bombed since the Russian withdrawal, not least over the Christmas holidays.

Before they shot us seven to ten times a day, now it was about 70 to 80 times, all day long. It’s too bad, says Elena, who is leaving town with her three daughters BBC.

During Wednesday, the region was subjected to intense shelling again – more than 50 attacks were directed against Kherson, the region’s governor, Jaroslav Janosevic, wrote on Telegram. On Tuesday, the area was attacked more than 20 times, and among others, a nursery, a healthcare building, shops and residential buildings were hit.

Ukraine took control of the city of Kherson, located in the region of the same name, on November 11 after the withdrawal of the Russian army across the Dnieper River. The city is still within range of Russian artillery fire, and has since been repeatedly bombarded.

On Christmas Eve, about a dozen people were killed and about 60 wounded in more than 40 attacks, according to Ukrainian authorities.

– We can’t take it anymore. The bombing is very violent. All this time we kept believing that it would pass and that we were lucky. Irina Antonenko, a resident of Kherson, told the BBC that the house next to ours was bombed, and my father’s house was also bombed.