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SHOCKING videos show Russians opening fire at unarmed civilians protesting in Ukraine

This is the ugly face of Russia, a disgrace to humankind, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said

Shocking videos show Russian forces occupying Kherson, Ukraine, opening fire and hurling stun grenades at unarmed civilians who were protesting at Svobody Square in the southern city of Kherson on Monday. Protesters were seen running to escape as forces used stun grenades to disperse them.

In the videos that have since gone viral, a large crowd can be seen at the square when Russian troops open fire. Small explosions, suspected to be concussion grenades, are going off around the dozens of protesters. Continuous gunshots can also be heard in the videos. It is unclear if the Russian soldiers first fired into the sky, but they later reportedly targeted the civilians. 

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"In Kherson, Russian war criminals opened fire at unarmed people who peacefully protested against invaders," Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's Foreign Minister said in a statement. "This is the ugly face of Russia, a disgrace to humankind. We must stop Russia! Sanction them, isolate them, hold war criminals to account." Ukraine's armed forces' press service added in a statement: "Russian security forces ran up, started throwing stun grenades into the crowd and shooting."

Kherson was the first significant Ukrainian city that Russian forces occupied. The city has seen regular demonstrations by civilians against the occupiers. According to Ukrainian media, a memorial located at the square had been defaced with graffiti where Ukrainian forces were accused of being "murderers of the children of Donbas". The locals had reportedly been trying to clean it. 

In one of the latest attacks on civilians, Russian troops attacked the massive Retroville Mall in Ukraine's Kyiv late Sunday, March 20, leaving the building in ruins and killing at least eight people, local authorities said. The shelling is the latest in a series of attacks on civilians and civilian structures in Ukraine. Residential buildings near the mall have also been attacked, Kyiv City Administration said.

Vitaliy Klitschko, the city's mayor said on Monday, March 21, that at least 65 civilians are already dead in Kyiv as a result of shelling. "The aggressor wanted to capture Kyiv within two to three days. He did not succeed,” Klitschko said on Ukrainian television Monday, March 21. “Our military is giving a decent rebuff. And the Russians are already starting to wander around the homes of civilians out of helplessness." Klitschko suggested that the attack on the mall was not unintentional. “This attack on a shopping center is not a coincidence. Putin wants to starve the civilians to make them pressurize their leaders,” he said on Twitter. “Let’s pressurize Putin‘s Russia instead. If you continue to do business with them, you have blood on your hands.”

A few days ago Russian troops bombed an art school housing 400 civilians, including women and children, in their latest attack on Mariupol. The G12 art school in Mariupol’s Left Bank district was reportedly hit by thermobaric TOS-1A rockets, capable of melting human organs. Rescuers said that many people remain trapped but the number of casualties is unclear. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the port's citizens were being killed in what would become an unspeakable war crime in history. "To do this to a peaceful city is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come," he said. 

Again, days ago, Russian troops also bombed a theater said to be sheltering up to 1,200 people, with the word 'children' written outside the building. The Mariupol Drama Theatre was being used to house people and shelter them from shelling, with meals being provided. Satellite images reportedly showed that the word 'children' was written in visibly large white letters in Russian outside both the front and back of the building.