Ukrainian shelling kills 25

Grocery store hit by 'double-tap' missile strike, says southern Kherson governor

Russia has accused Ukraine of shelling the Russian-occupied eastern territories of Kherson and Luhansk on Friday, leaving at least 25 civilians dead.

Kherson and Luhansk were among four Ukrainian territories Russia claimed to have annexed in September 2022 following its full-scale invasion. The international community, aside from North Korea and Syria, does not recognize the annexation.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed governor of the southern Kherson region, accused Ukrainian forces of killing 22 people, including a nine-year-old child, in the shelling of the small town of Sadove on Friday.

Saldo claimed that Ukrainian forces did "a double-tap" missile strike on a grocery store in the civilian area in Sadove. The grocery store, he noted, was packed with customers and staff when it was hit. The first attack was carried out using a French-supplied aerial bomb and the successive one with an American-supplied HIMARS missile, he told Russia 24.

Meanwhile, the Russianappointed head of the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said on Telegram a Ukrainian strike on Luhansk killed three people and wounded 35.