Russians Shot Unarmed Protesters, Won't Surrender, Says Ukraine: 10 Facts

Russia claimed the mall was being used to store rocket systems

Kyiv: Ukraine's leaders today accused Russian forces of firing on unarmed protesters in the occupied southern city of Kherson, with videos appearing to show residents fleeing flash-bang grenades and sustained gunfire.

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"Occupiers shot at people who went out peacefully, without weapons, to protest. For freedom -- our freedom," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said, leading the condemnation.
A series of videos posted on social media and the messaging app Telegram showed citizens gathering in Kherson's "Freedom Square" protesting against Russia's recent seizure of the city.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted a video of the incident on Twitter. "In Kherson, Russian war criminals opened fire at unarmed people who peacefully protested against invaders," Kuleba said.
Kherson, a city of almost 300,000 people before the war, was the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces, with Moscow capturing it within the first week of its invasion. People in Kherson have held regular demonstrations against Russian control of the city, a direct challenge to Russia's claim to have liberated the city.
But despite a soaring civilian toll, the Ukrainian President made clear his countrymen would not "hand over" the capital, the eastern city of Kharkiv, or the heavily bombarded and besieged Mariupol. "Ukraine cannot fulfil Russian ultimatums," he said. "We should be destroyed first."
In Kyiv, after Russian strikes -- likely a missile -- laid waste to the "Retroville" shopping complex. "It's the biggest bomb to have hit the city until now," said 30-year-old Dima Stepanienko, who found himself flung to "the foot of his bed" by the explosion.
Russia claimed the mall was being used to store rocket systems and ammunition. But Putin's troops have been increasingly accused of deliberately targeting civilians, including in Mariupol, scene of an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
Almost 350,000 people are trapped without water and electricity in the southern port which has been relentlessly assaulted by Russia in what European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described as a "massive war crime".
Mariupol is a pivotal target in Putin's war - providing a land bridge between Russian forces in Crimea to the southwest and Russian-controlled territory to the north and east.
Ukraine and Russia have held several rounds of talks via videoconferencing, but so far without a major breakthrough, and Zelensky reiterated that direct talks with his Russian counterpart "in any format" were now needed. "Without this meeting it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war," he argued.