Russian attacks on Ukraine\u2019s southern Kherson region have killed five people, according to Ukrainian officials, while Russian-installed authorities reported one person killed in Ukrainian shelling of the Russian-occupied eastern town of Horlivka.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian officials said the deaths in the attacks on Sunday include an 87-year-old man and his 81-year-old wife who were killed when their Kherson City apartment building was shelled.<\/p>\n
Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, the head of the press office of Kherson\u2019s regional military administration, said nine other people, including a 15-year-old, were wounded and gas and water supplies were partially cut off in the attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no holidays for the enemy,\u201d Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president\u2019s office, said in a post on social media. \u201cThey do not exist for us as long as the enemy kills our people and remains on our land.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russian forces have carried out repeated shelling of the city of Kherson since abandoning the administrative centre of the region more than a year ago.<\/p>\n
The latest assault came as Ukraine prepared to mark\u00a0Christmas on December 25\u00a0for the first time, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law moving the celebration from the January 7 date observed by the Russian Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n
In an address to mark Christmas Eve, Zelenskyy assured Ukrainians fighting against Russia that \u201cstep by step, day by day, the darkness is losing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, this is our common goal, our common dream. And this is precisely what our common prayer is for today. For our freedom. For our victory. For our Ukraine,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n
In Russian-controlled Horlivka, about 600km (400 miles) northeast of Kherson, Ukrainian shelling killed one woman and wounded six others, the Russian-installed mayor Ivan Prikhodko said on the Telegram messaging app.<\/p>\n
The attacks also destroyed a shopping centre and several other buildings, Prikhodko said.<\/p>\n