21 People Killed by Russian Missiles Hitting Hypermarkets and Stations, President Zelensky: All Civilians

The impact of the Russian missile attack on the city of Kherson, Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russian attacks killed 21 civilians in and near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Wednesday, including attacks on a hypermarket, a train station, a crossing, a gas station and residential buildings, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Furthermore, in his upload on the Telegram messaging application, President Zelensky wrote that forty-eight people were known to have been injured as a result of the attack.

"All civilians! With days yet to end! In one area!," he wrote, as reported by Reuters May 4.

President Zelensky described the targets as "the bloody trail that Russia left with its bullets".

Earlier, officials said 12 victims were in the city of Kherson, the regional capital, where a hypermarket was fired upon while people were shopping in the morning and an explosion tore through a train station.

Four other people were killed in villages outside the main city, in attacks from areas in the Russian-occupied Kherson region. They include three engineers trying to repair damage done to the power grid by the previous Russian bombing.

The aftermath of a Russian missile attack on Kherson City, Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/National Police of Ukraine)

Pools of blood and piles of rubble lay on the ground outside the Kherson hypermarket, whose entrance was badly damaged and sealed off, a Reuters correspondent at the scene said.

Many windows were shattered at the train station, and at least two survivors were seen being carried away on stretchers. Three women who were eating at the time of the attack said they took cover under a table.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said all the victims were customers or workers at the hypermarket.

"When the enemy is unable to achieve anything on the battlefield, they attack peaceful cities," said Ukrainian military spokesman Serhii Cherevatyi.

Separately, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin on Wednesday announced a curfew in the city of Kherson, lasting from Friday evening to Monday morning for "law enforcement" reasons. He did not provide any other details.

Russia has not commented on the attack on Kherson, one of four Ukrainian territories it annexed last September. From the start, Moscow denied targeting civilians in its invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.

Moscow has stepped up its air strikes on Ukraine in recent days, as Kyiv prepares for a counteroffensive that is expected to try to retake territory it occupied in the Kherson region.

It is known that Ukrainian troops recaptured the city of Kherson last November after nearly eight months of occupation, but Russian troops withdrew only as far as the other side of the Dnipro River, where they are now pounding the city.