Russian forces killed 148 children[/B] during bombing and air strikes, launched 1.370 missiles and destroyed 15 Ukrainian airfields since the beginning of the invasion on February 24, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.[/B]
More than 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, a statement said.
Reuters news agency could not verify this information from an independent source.
One dead from gunfire against a humanitarian convoy near Chernihiv
Uninterrupted shelling continues in Ukraine. One person has been killed and four wounded by gunfire that hit a convoy of five buses carrying volunteers to the besieged city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, a Ukrainian official said.
"Russian militants fired at a convoy of volunteers near Chernihiv. Five buses heading to the town to evacuate civilians came under fire," Liudmila Denisova, in charge of human rights in the parliament, said.
"One person was killed, four were seriously wounded," she clarified.
The Ukrainian official accused the Russian troops of "not leaving the slightest possibility to remove civilians from the besieged Chernihiv, with the result that tens of thousands of civilians are left without food, water, heating."
After Mariupol in the south, Chernihiv, with a population of 280.000 inhabitants before the war, is the city most affected by bombing since Moscow started the war on 24 February.
Without food and medicine, Hershon is in danger of being left
In Hershon, soldiers are searching homes and residents are frantically searching for medicine: those who remain in this town in southern Ukraine gave the French Agency a grim picture of life under Russian occupation.
Kherson, which had 283,000 inhabitants before the war, is located at the mouth of the Dnieper River, near annexed Crimea. It is the only major town the Russian army has so far managed to occupy, on March 3.
The French Agency gathered by telephone testimonies from six residents of Kherson, where there is no international media correspondent. All six asked that their surnames be withheld for fear of reprisals.
According to the residents, Russian forces are blocking food and humanitarian aid deliveries to Kherson and there is a shortage of medicine.
"If we spend another month like this we won't have to be bombed anymore. Hunger and disease will do the same job," said Kirillo, an ambulance driver.
All residents who spoke to AFP also said they saw or heard talk of "visits" by Russian soldiers to apartments. "They are looking for people whose names are on various lists. They enter houses, they are armed, you can't resist," explained Tetyana, an employee at a university."
A resident of the nearby town of Kahofka, which is also under Russian control, said the Russians were "arresting people," mostly local activists and retired soldiers. "We don't know where they are taking them," she said."
Unlicensed pharmacies
The US asserted last week that Kherson is a "disputed city" and Kiev has launched an offensive to regain control of it. But residents say that although there is fighting in its periphery, the city is under Moscow's control.
However, no major damage or casualties have been reported as a result of the fighting, as is the case in other cities, Mariupol or Chernihiv. And despite the presence of Russian forces, residents have managed to organize protest demonstrations in the main square.
"We are under occupation, but we always remain with Ukraine," summed up Maria, a 24-year-old shopkeeper.
Residents said their main concern after the appearance of Russian tanks was the worsening health crisis. Insulin and other medicines have been in short supply since the first weeks of the occupation. "The pharmacy shelves are empty. There is only water," Kirillo said. Volunteers go to homes to buy medicine while ambulances are only called in cases of very great need because "there is no more gasoline," he added."
Food stocks are steadily declining. Meat and vegetables are still available at twice the normal prices, but pasta and barley are scarce. "They are not letting humanitarian aid get here. For a month now, there have been no food deliveries," said Alyona, who works in the communications sector.
They are investigating everything
In recent days there have been rumours that the ruble has been introduced as currency in Kherson, but residents assured that the currency in circulation is the Ukrainian hryvnia.
Although days in the town are relatively quiet, fighting continues in the neighbouring village of Chornobayfka.
"Every night we wake up to the sound of gunfire. It's like an alarm clock," Tetyana said."
Ukrainian authorities said a Russian general was killed in Chornobayfka, and President Volodymyr Zhelensky said the battle "will go down in history."
Kiev also reported this week that it had regained control of several villages in the Kherson region. In those that remain under Russian control, life has changed. Maria, who lives in Kahofka, on the banks of the Dnieper, said she can no longer go to her job at a furniture shop in a neighbouring town: the road passes a Russian army checkpoint.
"They are searching everything. They look at your phone, your messages, you have to delete everything," she said. That's why residents only move "if absolutely necessary."
Kherson, the young woman said, was not prepared for the attack Russia launched from Crimea. Russian forces immediately took control of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.
Maria is still shocked by the attack by a country where her father lives. "My father is in Russia and he tells me everything is a lie," the young woman laments. She stopped calling him.
Source: Proto Thema
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