Zelenskiy says investigators document more than 400 Russian war crimes in Kherson

KHERSON, Ukraine, (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russian soldiers of committing war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson, parts of which were retaken by Ukraine’s army last week after Russia pulled out.

“Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and servicemen have been found,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Sunday.

“The Russian army left behind the same savagery it did in other regions of the country it entered,” he said.

Reuters was unable to verify his allegations. Russia denies its troops intentionally target civilians.

Mass graves have been found in several places across Ukraine since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24, including civilian bodies showing evidence of torture discovered in the Kharkiv region and in Bucha, near Kyiv. Ukraine accused Russian troops of committing the crimes.

A United Nations commission in October said war crimes were committed in Ukraine and that Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human rights violations in the early weeks of the war. Read full story

Ukrainian troops arrived in the centre of southern Kherson region on Friday after Russia abandoned the only regional capital it had captured since Moscow launched its invasion.

Villagers holding flowers waited on the road to Kherson to greet Ukrainian soldiers on Saturday as they poured in to secure control of the right bank of the Dnipro River. Read full story

This marks Moscow’s third major retreat of the war and the first to involve yielding such a large occupied city in the face of a major Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Utility companies in Kherson region were working to restore critical infrastructure damaged and mined by fleeing Russian forces, with most homes in the southern Ukrainian city still without power and water, regional officials said.

On Sunday, artillery exchanges echoing over the city failed to discourage crowds of jubilant, flag-waving residents bundled up against the cold from gathering on Kherson’s main square. The crowds tried to catch mobile phone signals from Starlink ground stations carried on Ukrainian military vehicles.

“We are happy now, but all of us are afraid of the bombing from the left bank,” said Yana Smyrnova, 35, a singer, referring to Russian guns on the east side of the Dnipro River that runs close to the city.

The governor of Kherson region, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said the authorities had decided to maintain a curfew from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. and ban people from leaving or entering the city as a security measure.

“The enemy mined all critical infrastructure,” Yanushevych told Ukrainian TV. “We are trying to meet within a few days and (then) open the city,” he said.

In an online post Yanushevych warned people about reports of humanitarian aid arriving in Kherson’s Freedom Square and urged people to steer clear of the centre of the city as demining operations were due to proceed there.

Zelenskiy also warned Kherson residents about the presence of Russian mines. “I am asking you please not to forget that the situation in Kherson region remains very dangerous,” he said.