War in Ukraine. The horrors of war by Kherson

A car lies under debris outside a building damaged as a result of a Russian air strike on Kherson on February 2, 2024.

People at a gas station damaged by a Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine, May 3, 2023.

A local resident looks at a crater at the site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson, Ukraine December 5, 2023.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson regional military administration said “This morning at six, Russian troops targeted the children’s library in Kherson, delivering a direct hit. The barbaric act resulted in the destruction of the Kherson bookstore, a cherished place that has brought joy to young visitors and their parents for years.”

First responders work near burnt-out cars after a reported deadly Russian artillery strike in Kherson, Ukraine, in this still image from handout video released November 20, 2023.

The Honchar Regional Library in Kherson has been badly damaged after a Russian air strike on the city early on November 12.

Stray dogs gather on a deserted street in the city of Kherson. The city was liberated from Russian forces on November 11, 2022, after nearly eight months of occupation. Almost a year later, it faces daily attacks.

A man inspects part of a missile that fell next to a residential building that was damaged during an overnight Russian attack in the southern city of Kherson on October 30.

People walk past a building damaged in a recent Russian attack in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, on October 29, 2023.

Emergency units carry out rescue tasks in the Ukrainian region of Kherson on September 25, 2023.

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a warehouse after shelling in Kherson, Ukraine, September 19, 2023.

Ukrainian firefighters put out a fire at a house destroyed in Russian shelling in Kherson, Ukraine, Saturday, July 1, 2023.

Firefighters work at the site of a transport company hit by a Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine, in a handout picture released June 19, 2023.

A man walks in front of a building which was heavily damaged by a Russian airstrike in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, June 15, 2023.

Emergency teams help rush to safety injured civilian evacuees who had came under fire from Russian forces while trying to flee by boat from the Russian-occupied east bank of a flooded Dnieper River to Ukrainian-held Kherson, on the western bank in Kherson, Ukraine on Sunday, June 11, 2023.

Houses are seen underwater in the flooded village near Kherson, Ukraine, Saturday, June 10, 2023. The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine is swiftly evolving into long-term environmental catastrophe. It affects drinking water, food supplies and ecosystems reaching into the Black Sea.

Volunteers haul a woman on a stretcher as she been evacuated from a flooded neighborhood of the left bank Dnipro river, in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, June 9, 2023. In Ukraine, the governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Friday that water levels had decreased by about 20 centimeters (8 inches) overnight on the western bank of the Dnieper, which was inundated starting Tuesday after the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam upstream.

Flooded residential buildings are seen on Thursday, June 8, in Kherson, Ukraine.

A flooded neighborhood is seen in Kherson, Ukraine, on Wednesday, June 7, after the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam.

Local resident Tetiana holds her pets, Tsatsa and Chunya, as she stands inside her house that was flooded after the Kakhovka dam blew up overnight, in Kherson, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russian forces of blowing up a major dam and hydroelectric power station in a part of southern Ukraine that Russia controls, risking environmental disaster.

People at a gas station damaged by a Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine, May 3, 2023.

People receive meals from World Central Kitchen food truck on a street in Kherson, Ukraine, February 22, 2023.

A bus station damaged after a shelling in Kherson, Ukraine, February 21, 2023.

A destroyed Russian tank rusts near the Kovalyov brothers’ houses, near Posad-Pokrovske, Ukraine January 31, 2023.

Ukrainian servicemen remove a grad rocket in a damaged house after an attack in Kherson, Ukraine, January 29, 2023.

Trenches line the ground behind Stepan and his wife Tetyana’s house, in Posad-Pokrovske, Ukraine January 28, 2023.

Suffering from cancer, Gennadiy Shaposhnikov, 83, rests in his partially destroyed home which was hit by Russian shelling last fall in Kalynivske, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023.

A local resident runs past a burning house hit by the Russian shelling in Kherson, Ukraine, on the Orthodox Christmas Eve Friday, Jan. 6, 2023.

After eight months of fighting not a single house in the village of Oleksandrivka in the south of Ukraine has remained intact.

Local resident Klavdia, 82, stands near her house which was destroyed by a Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine, December 29, 2022.

A man looks at the debris of shopfronts damaged in Russian shelling on the night of December 28.

Cars burn on a street after Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian port city of Kherson on December 24.

The damage inside after the landmark Kherson Regional State Administration building was reportedly hit by Russian rocket fire in Kherson, Ukraine, a this still image from video released December 14, 2022.

A building in Kherson on December 12 after being shelled by Russian forces.

A local woman speaks on her mobile phone in a window of a residential building damaged by a Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine, December 11, 2022.

Destroyed buildings in the village of Posad-Pokrovske, Kherson Region, Ukraine, December 7, 2022.

A family look through their possessions at their house which was occupied by Russian forces, in recently liberated village of Pravdyne, Kherson region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. Russian invaders left behind all sorts of trickery as they fled this southern city to jubilation across Ukraine a month ago, and they continue to strike it from afar.

A house burns after a Russian attack in Kherson, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022.

A building, part of the Kherson international airport is seen damaged during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Kherson, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 2, 2022.

People fill up bottles with water near the Dnipro River after Russia's military retreat from Kherson, Ukraine, November 29, 2022.

Oleksandr Antonenko, 53, sits in a front of his apartment building damaged by a recent Russian military strike in Kherson, Ukraine, November 27, 2022.

Residents check the damage of a shop destroyed a day earlier during a Russian attack in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. A barrage of missiles struck the recently liberated city of Kherson for the second day Friday in a marked escalation of attacks since Russia withdrew from the city two weeks ago following an eight-month occupation.

A resident look at the damage in a building after a Russian strike in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022.

A damaged residential building as seen from the destroyed vocational school in the northern Kherson region of Ukraine.

Ukrainian children play at an abandoned checkpoint in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022. Russian invaders left behind all sorts of trickery as they fled this southern city to jubilation across Ukraine a month ago, and they continue to strike it from afar.

People wait in line to get food, water, and aid after Russia's military retreat from Kherson at the Church of Christ the Savior in Kherson, Ukraine, November 22, 2022.

Doctors operate on 13-year-old Artur Voblikov inside a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. Arthur Voblikova was injured after a Russian strike, and doctors had to amputate his left arm. As attacks increase in the recently liberated city of Kherson, doctors are struggling to cope amid little water, electricity and a lack of equipment.

Residents of the recently liberated city of Kherson collect water from the Dnipro river bank, near the frontline, southern Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022.

Residents queue to fill containers with drinking water in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. Russian forces fired tank shells, rockets and other artillery on the city of Kherson, which was recently liberated from Ukrainian forces.

A plume of smoke rises during a fire caused by a Russian attack in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022.

Residents gathering at an aid distribution point receive supplies in downtown Kherson, southern Ukraine, Friday, Nov. 18, 2022.

People queue to receive food donations in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, on Thursday, November 17, 2022.

A destroyed school on the outskirts of a recently liberated village outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. The Russian withdrawal from the only provincial capital it gained in nine months of war was one of Moscow most significant battlefield losses. Now that its troops hold a new front line, the Ukrainian military said through a spokesman, the army is planning its next move.

A destroyed armoured vehicle lies at the entrance of Kherson, southern Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022.

People charge their phones, try to connect to the internet and make phone calls, in central square in Kherson, Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. Waves of Russian airstrikes rocked Ukraine on Tuesday, with authorities immediately announcing emergency blackouts after attacks from east to west on energy and other facilities knocked out power and, in the capital, struck residential buildings.

Vitaliy Mysharskiy, 14, left, and his grandmother Tanya Babii sit in the yard of the family house in the recently liberated village of Kyselivka, outskirts of Kherson, southern Ukraine, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. As violence escalates in Ukraine abuse has become widespread, according to the United Nations. In September Alesha Babenko and his 14-year-old nephew, Vitaliy Mysharskiy, were arrested by Russian soldiers who occupied their small village of Kyselivka, after taking photos of destroyed tanks and sending them to the Ukrainian army.

The destroyed Antonivskyi Bridge over the Dnipro River after Russia's retreat from Kherson, Ukraine, November 14, 2022.

A view of the damaged Antonovsky bridge over the Dnieper river in Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. Residents of Kherson celebrated the end of Russia’s eight-month occupation for the third straight day Sunday, even as they took stock of the extensive damage left behind in the southern Ukrainian city by the Kremlin’s retreating forces.

Serhii Kalko shows a house burned by Russian soldiers during an occupation in the village of Blahodatne, retaken by the Ukrainian Armed Forces a day ago, in Kherson Region, Ukraine, November 11, 2022.

The Antonivsky Bridge across the Dnieper River near the Russian-held city of Kherson has been badly damaged by Ukrainian strikes.

The destroyed Fabrika shopping mall in the city of Kherson, which was one of the first areas attacked by the Russian military. A Ukrainian official said on Sunday that the country’s southern region of Kherson, which fell to Russian troops early in their February invasion, would be recaptured by Kyiv’s forces by September.

The Antonivskiy bridge over the Dnieper River on July 20 before it was hit by a Ukrainian rocket strike.

Demonstrators, some displaying Ukrainian flags, chant 'go home' while walking towards retreating Russian military vehicles at a pro-Ukraine rally in Kherson.