Ukraine’s attack on city in Kherson Region ‘reminiscent of Hiroshima’ – official

12.07.2022 09:11

Ukraine’s attack on city in Kherson Region ‘reminiscent of Hiroshima’ – official
Explosion in Novaya Kakhovka © social media

Ukraine’s attack on Novaya Kakhovka – a city in Kherson Region controlled by Russian forces – with American weapons is a “crime against the civilian population,” Vladimir Leontyev, the head of the city’s military-civilian administration, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday night. According to him, dozens of people were injured and hundreds were left homeless.

“Tonight reminds me of the terrible analogies of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which the United States carried out in August 1945. Almost the same thing happened to us today. There are already casualties among the civilian population, there are wounded, hundreds of people were left homeless, dozens of houses were destroyed. Hospitals continue to receive people. Many dozens of people are injured. We are shocked by this bombardment,” he said.

The deputy head of the regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, told RIA Novosti that Ukrainian troops launched a missile attack on Novaya Kakhovka with high-precision American HIMARS rocket launchers.

A Russian ammunition depot exploded in the city, the speaker of the Odessa regional administration, Sergey Bratchuk, and a Ukrainian military servicemember and adviser to the head of Kherson Region, Sergey Khlan, said.

“People’s windows are flying out, but they are still happy... Because this means that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are close,” Khlan said.

TASS and RIA Novosti sources say that warehouses with saltpeter were attacked, stating separately that the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was not damaged, but the nearby market, hospital, and residential buildings were.

“The information has already been unequivocally confirmed that a large humanitarian hub was located... a few meters from the missile hit, and a boy with a disability remained on duty there for the night. This is not some kind of heartbreaking story, it’s actually true. This boy died for sure. But the psychological effect that they want to achieve (in Kiev) as a result of these bombings will not be achieved. This is a crime against the civilian population, first of all,” Leontyev said, adding that he considers Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a criminal.

"When you give an order to bomb the center of a peaceful city, this is a crime, an obvious crime that has no statute of limitations. This is a real tragedy,” he added.

Novaya Kakhovka, a regional center, came under Russian control on February 24, the first day of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. Previously, there had not been any information in open sources that there were warehouses with saltpeter in the city.