Ukraine reports numerous casualties in Mariupol, Odessa, Kherson

Adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko, citing police data, reported casualties during artillery attacks in Odessa and Sumy regions, as well as in Mariupol.

According to Gerashchenko, in the Konotop district of the Sumy region, a car came under fire, and a woman with a child were injured. Six people were killed in the military unit of Podolsk, Odessa region, seven were injured, 19 went missing.

In Mariupol, one person was killed as a result of the shelling, two others were injured. In the Nikolaev region, during the shelling of a military airfield, one person was injured. A 17-year-old teenager was killed in Semikhatki, the Kherson region.

A border guard was killed near the village of Preobrazhenka, the Kherson region, Interfax Ukraine reports with reference to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the country,

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a "special military operation" in the Donbass to "protect the residents of the region from genocide." In his address to the Russians, he said that the Kremlin would seek to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. At the same time, he added, Russia does not want to occupy Ukrainian territories.

On the morning of February 24, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, announced rocket attacks on Kiev, Kharkov and the Dnieper. Representatives for the Russian Defense Ministry said that they were disabling the military infrastructure of the Ukrainian army without striking civilian settlements and cities.