(Reuters) – Waves of Russian shelling and drone attacks struck the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson on Saturday, killing one person and injuring seven, officials in the region said.
Russian forces also shelled a power station closer to the front lines in eastern Ukraine, injuring five workers and knocking out electricity to the town of Kurakhovo.
Russian forces a year ago abandoned positions on the western bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region but constantly shell areas there from new positions on the eastern bank. Ukrainian troops have established beachheads on the eastern bank.
Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said a drone attack killed a man in the town of Stanislav, southeast of the city of Kherson, which for the past year, has been under Ukrainian control but subject to constant Russian shelling.
The city came under several Russian attacks throughout the day, including one sustained assault on residential areas in the early evening, and Prokudin said seven residents were hurt.
In the east, Russian shelling of a thermal power station in the town of Kurakhove injured five workers and triggered a power cut, the head of the local administration, Roman Padun, told the Suspilne public broadcaster.
Residents were leaving the town en masse, he said.
Kurakhove is a short distance from Maryinka, a town on the 1,000-km (600-mile) long front line virtually reduced to rubble after months of heavy fighting.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in its evening report, said Ukrainian forces had repelled two attacks on the town and more than more assaults on the nearby town of Avdiivka, focus of steady Russian attacks since mid-October.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Nick Starkov; editing by Diane Craft)