SIMFEROPOL, May 20. /TASS/. Ukraine has been shelling Kherson to foil any "positive picture" of developments in the Russia-controlled city, Crimea’s parliament speaker said in an interview on Friday.

The attacks against Kherson are being carried out not because somebody in the neighboring Nikolayev Region wants them, said State Council Chairman Vladimir Konstantinov. "The puppeteers in the West are trying to quash any ‘good picture’ from coming out of Kherson," he explained. "I mean life in Kherson is returning to normal. Prices on fuel and lubricants have dropped and land is being farmed. A life of peace is being restored and the city has not been destroyed".

"The picture they see is not in their favor, that is why strikes are continuing," Konstantinov said.

Shelling Kherson, Donetsk and earlier Lugansk does not make any military sense. "The aim is to wreak havoc among civilians. And Ukraine’s propaganda depicts those people as victims at the hands of Russia’s military. They will never admit to killing the civilian population," Konstantinov stressed, lashing out at Ukraine calling it "a territory of lies." Ukraine has never had, nor does it have now any history or tradition of statehood, he added.