KYIV: Russian bombardment killed four people and injured nine over 24 hours in the frontline southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a regional official said Sunday.

Russian forces fired 71 shells at Kherson from Saturday to Sunday morning, hitting the city centre, residential areas, medical and educational institutions and “critical infrastructure facilities”, the region’s governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.

“As a result of Russian aggression, four people died and nine others were wounded, including one child.”

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President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned what he called “brutal terrorist shelling deliberately targeting life-sustaining civilian infrastructure and ordinary streets”.

“Unfortunately there are fatalities. My condolences to the families,” the president added in a message on social media.

Prokudin said an 87-year-old man and his 81-year-old wife were among the victims after an artillery shell hit a residential building.

Rescuers found a third male victim under rubble, he added.

Zelensky said that repair teams would “work around the clock to restore electricity and heat supply” to the city after the strikes.

Ukraine recaptured Kherson following several months of Russian occupation in November last year.

It is now a regular target for Moscow’s forces based on the opposite bank of the Dnipro river, which became a natural front line as the conflict slowed to a war of attrition.

Separately, Ukraine’s air force on Sunday said it had intercepted all but one of 15 drones launched by Russia overnight.