Angelina Jolie visits Kherson, Ukrainian city under Russian fire
Angelina Jolie, the Academy Award-winning actor and former special envoy for the United Nations, braved Russian attacks to visit with Ukrainian families impacted by the war in Kherson, the city subjected to some of Russia’s most grievous war crime allegations.
Images from Jolie’s visit were posted on social media Wednesday, showing the actress wearing a bulletproof vest with Ukrainian insignia, meeting with children in what appeared to be underground bunkers expanded throughout the city to protect from Russian strikes.
Jolie previously visited Ukraine in April 2022, traveling to Lviv close to the border with Poland, where she met with refugees and volunteers. Jolie was the U.N.’s special envoy for refugee issues from 2012-22 and a Goodwill Ambassador from 2001-12.
Jolie’s visit brings a spotlight on Kherson, where the region’s about 150,000 remaining residents are hunted and shot at by Russian drones. Russian forces are accused of the war crime of deliberately targeting civilians, while also carrying out shelling and artillery fire, damaging buildings and infrastructure, and terrorizing residents.
A report released last month by the U.N.’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said Russian forces located across the river from Ukrainian-controlled Kherson Oblast — or administrative region — “intentionally target civilians and civilian objects” across an area of more than 186 miles, or 300 kilometers.
“The Commission concluded that these drone attacks constitute the crimes against humanity of murder and of forcible transfer of population,” the commission wrote. Among Russia’s targets include homes, medical buildings and infrastructure serving civilians. First responders, including ambulances and fire brigades, were also hit, regardless of their special protection under international humanitarian law.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has refused to halt his nearly four-year war. President Trump has put forth enormous efforts to push Putin to agree to a ceasefire, providing a coveted face-to-face meeting in an effort of outreach in August and then imposing sanctions on its oil industry last month amid his frustration.
Russia maintains control over a portion of Kherson Oblast, although Putin announced the Russian annexation of that area in 2022 despite failing to control all of the territory. In November 2022, Ukrainian forces liberated roughly 30 percent of Kherson that was under Russian occupation.
Putin has reportedly offered to withdraw from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, a second region Russia illegally annexed, in exchange for Ukraine’s withdrawal from the eastern part of the country, called the Donetsk.
Ukraine has refused to accept such terms and said agreements on the future of any territory must be reached in negotiations.