Russia-Ukraine war: Three emergency workers killed in demining in Kherson

Over the weekend, demining operations were taking place at the reclaimed territory of Kherson. Three emergency services workers were killed while demining parts of the territory.

Three emergency services workers in the reclaimed Kherson territory were killed on Saturday during a demining operation in parts of the territory, according to the emergency services of another region. The demining operation has been taking place since Ukrainian forces reclaimed Kherson city back in mid-November.

“All three selflessly served in the emergency and rescue squad of the Special Purpose Unit of the State Department of Ukraine in Zhytomyr region and performed the task of demining territories liberated from the enemy in the Kherson region,” said the Zhytomyr emergency service in a post on Facebook.

Demining operations are being carried out also following the warning by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russian forces mined objects and buildings, as what was done in the territories that Ukrainian forces were able to reclaim. Early this month, the US State Department estimated that around 160,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian land needed to be checked for mines.

“We expect this to be one of the largest landmine and unexploded ordinance challenges since World War Two,” the State Department said in a briefing published on its website.

Also on Saturday, Pope Francis spoke out against the 10-month-long war in his Christmas eve homily at St. Peter’s Square, in his latest condemnation of the ongoing battle. During his homily, the Pontiff called on the people to look beyond the consumerism that has now surrounded the holiday while remembering those who are suffering from conflicts and poverty.

“Men and women in our world, in their hunger for wealth and power, consume even their neighbors, their brothers, and sisters,” said the pope. “How many wars have we seen! And in how many places, even today, are human dignity and freedom treated with contempt!”

The pope has condemned the war in nearly every public event where he has made an appearance, denouncing what the pontiff described as acts of aggression and atrocities. The pope said that the victims of the war are the “weak and miserable” and the children “devoured by war, poverty, and injustice.”