‘My mum’s books survived Putin’s missiles’: defiance after blast destroys Kherson children’s library

The Dnipro Seagull library’s local history learning room was destroyed in the attack by Russian artillery. Photograph: Courtesy of Kherson Oblast

There it is, on a wintry morning: charred masonry, gnarled metal, glass shards, rubble and dust.

Yet another ravaged building in Ukraine: each has its own story, and this violation is against Kherson’s regional library for children, a place of effervescent creativity with a wonderful collection, named Dnipro Seagull library, after the birds that soar over the city’s mighty river – a symbol of the region.