KHERSON
\nWhen Russian artillery pounded a market in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, a safe was blown from the windowsill of the pharmacy where Anya works, hitting her in the head.
\nShe believes it was a stroke of luck.
\n\u201cThe safe hit me and saved me at the same time, because on the other side of the safe there were a lot of holes,\u201d she told AFP, suggesting the metal box had shielded her from other projectiles that had been blasted toward her.
\nSix people were killed by the Russian strike, which hit a market in the city of Kherson around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), according to the regional prosecutor\u2019s office.
\nIt was the latest attack on a city that has borne the brunt of Moscow\u2019s war for more than two and a half years.
\nCaptured in the first weeks of the invasion in early 2022, residents that stayed there spent more than eight months living under Russian occupation.
\nIn September 2022, Moscow claimed to have annexed the entire Kherson region, despite not having full control over it.
\nFacing military setbacks and stretched resources, it then withdrew its forces from Kherson city, the regional capital, in November 2022, retreating across the Dnipro river.
\nThe waterway now serves as a de facto front line snaking through southern Ukraine \u2014 one that puts Kherson well within reach of Russian artillery stationed on the opposite bank.
\nDeadly strikes are frequent and locals live on edge.
\n\u201cEverything happened very quickly. We didn\u2019t understand anything. We only heard an explosion. It went dark, there was dust and something hit me on the head,\u201d said Anya, recalling the blast.
\nShe had stuck a plaster to her forehead where the safe had struck her.
\nWhen an AFP video journalist arrived at the market after the strike, debris and broken glass were strewn across the ground and pools of blood were congealing under the autumn sun.
\nCrates of fruit and vegetables lay on the pavement, abandoned as their sellers fled for cover.
\n\u201cAll those people who suffered, they worked here,\u201d Anya told AFP. \u201cThey were our clients, people we knew.\u201d
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that Ukraine abandon the entire Kherson region \u2014 as well as parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Lugansk that Ukraine still controls \u2014 as a precondition to peace talks
\nKherson local Gennady was in a hardware kiosk when the artillery hit.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t even notice I\u2019d fallen to the floor,\u201d he told AFP.
\n\u201cEverything here was black. And what was outside \u2014 I was afraid to go out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KHERSON When Russian artillery pounded a market in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, a safe was blown from the windowsill of the pharmacy where Anya works, hitting her in the head. She believes it was a stroke of luck. \u201cThe safe hit me and saved me at the same time, because on the other side of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-434730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n