Kherson drone attack kills man after residents told to leave

A drone attack in Kherson's Korabelnyi district early Friday killed a 61-year-old man, hours after residents of the southern Ukrainian city were urged to leave because intensifying Russian attacks could cut power and heating for an extended period.

Yaroslav Shanko, head of the Kherson city administration, said the man was taken to hospital with a penetrating chest wound. Shanko said three other wounded people were taken to hospital in the Dniprovsky district.

Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin had urged residents on Thursday, especially families with children and elderly people, to leave if they could. He said Kherson faced an “extremely difficult security situation” as attacks on critical infrastructure increased.

Prokudin said Russian forces had again attacked Kherson’s district heating plant with glide bombs on Wednesday, causing very serious damage. He warned that the city could be left without electricity or heating “not for hours or days but for a long period.”

Kherson had about 280,000 residents before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian forces occupied the city from March to November 2022 and are now positioned on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, leaving Kherson exposed to shelling.

Further from the front line, local authorities said Kyiv spent nearly 15 hours under air raid alert on Thursday because of repeated drone attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has continued to appeal to allies for more air defence systems.