Hundreds flee Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine

Hundreds of Ukrainians rushed out of Kherson city on Sunday to escape Russian shelling, two weeks after its recapture from Russian occupying forces prompted jubilant celebrations.

The liberation of Kherson marked a major battlefield gain for Kyiv reconquered after the Russians retreated to the east bank of the Dnipro River. Since then, the inhabitants of the region have struggled with no water, heating and electricity because Moscow s troops destroyed thermal and power plants before they left.

Evacuations began last week due to fears that damage to infrastructure caused by the war was too severe for people to endure over Ukraine's harsh winter. The exodus has been exacerbated by Russian shelling, which has killed 32 civilians since Russian forces left the city on 9 November.

It is sad that we are leaving our home, Yevhen Yankov told the Associated Press as a van he was inched forward. We are free now, but we have to leave because there is shelling and there are dead among the population. The head of the city's military administration, Galina Lugova, said authorities will do everything to make the people safe, but that the shelling intensifies every day. Shelling, shelling, and shelling Vitaliy Nadochiy, driving with a terrier on his lap and a Ukrainian flag dangling from a sun visor, told AP that artillery had hit his house. Four flats burned down. He said that the windows shattered. There is no electricity, no water, no heating. We are leaving to go to my brother. The reasons for the constant bombardments on Kherson are not yet clear whether Russia is trying to consolidate its defensive positions across Dnipro and prevent the Ukrainians from attempting a new attack or if Moscow is trying to retake the city after the great humiliation of retreat.

Snow continues to fall on the Kyiv region and temperatures hovered around freezing on Sunday, as millions in and around the Ukrainian capital struggled with disruptions to electricity supply and central heating caused by waves of Russian airstrikes.

Ukrenergo, the state power grid operator, said on Sunday that electricity producers were now providing about 80% of demand. The company said that was an improvement from Saturday's 75%.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said there were restrictions on the use of electricity in 14 of Ukraine's 27 regions and Kyiv, for more than 100,000 customers in each of the regions.

He said in his nightly video address: If consumption increases in the evening, the number of outages may increase. This shows how important it is to save power and consume it rationally. Sergey Kovalenko, the chief operating officer of Yasno, said the situation in the city had improved but remained quite difficult. He indicated that local people should have at least four hours of power a day.

With a persistent snowfall blanketing Kyiv on Sunday, analysts predicted that wintry weather could have an impact on the direction of the conflict.