Ukrainian families flee recently-liberated Kherson as Russia ramps up its bombing

FAMILIES are fleeing Kherson as Russia ramps up its bombing of the recently liberated city.

Huge queues have formed at checkpoints as hundreds of Ukrainians desperately try to make it to safety.

Vladimir Putin’s soldiers fired 33 shells at the southern port city in the 24 hours up to ­yesterday morning, officials in Ukraine claimed.

Five new mums and their babies narrowly dodged death when a maternity hospital was hit on Tuesday.

Russian units began a concerted bombardment of civilian targets over Christmas.

A mortar attack killed 11 ­people and injured nearly 60 at a main market in the city on Christmas Eve.

Kherson was captured in the early days of the invasion — the only regional capital seized by Russian troops.

It was liberated on November 11 in one of Ukraine’s most significant gains of the war.

Locals celebrated in the streets and waved Ukrainian flags but are now under renewed attack from Russian positions just over the Dnipro river.

Meanwhile it has emerged 300,000 Russian conscripts have been allowed to freeze their sperm for free.

Igor Trunov, of the Russian Union of Lawyers, said the health ministry agreed to his request on the soldiers’ behalf.

It means that wives back home could still father their husbands’ children if they fail to return from the front line.