With its Soviet-era tower blocks besieged by oily waters from the blown-up Kakhovka dam, the Ukrainian city of Kherson is like a vision of Venice gone badly wrong.

The sound of shelling is never far away, and instead of gondolas ferrying tourists, flotillas of rescue boats cruise around rescuing those still stuck in their apartments.

On Thursday, though, even a humanitarian mission aimed mainly at rescuing pensioners and stranded pets found itself directly in the firing line of the war. As rescue boats in the central Korabel district pulled up at a makeshift quayside at the half-submerged Extravaganza beauty parlour, the sound of gently lapping water was suddenly replaced by the high-pitched whistle of incoming mortar fire.

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