NewsPoliticsTop StoryWorld

‘We survived’: Kherson is alive after Russian retreat

‘We survived’: Kherson is alive after Russian retreat

Newslooks- KHERSON, Ukraine (AP)

A week since the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was liberated, residents can’t escape reminders of the terrifying eight months they spent under Russian occupation: missing people, mines everywhere, closed shops and restaurants, a scarcity of electricity and water — and explosions day and night as Russian and Ukrainian forces battle just across the Dnieper River.

Despite these hardships, Kherson residents are expressing a mix of relief, optimism, and even joy — not least because of their regained freedom to express themselves at all.

FILE – A local resident removes the Russian flag from a billboard in central Kherson, Ukraine, Nov. 13, 2022. Ukraine liberated Kherson more than one week ago, and the city’s streets are revived for the first time in many months. People no longer sit in their homes in fear of meeting the Russians. Instead, they gather in the city’s squares to recharge their phones, collect water and catch a connection to talk to their relatives. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)

“Even breathing became easier. Everything is different now,” said Olena Smoliana, a pharmacist whose eyes shone with happiness as she recalled the day Ukrainian soldiers entered the city.

Kherson’s population has dwindled to around 80,000 from its prewar level near 300,000, but the city is slowly coming alive.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy triumphantly walked the streets on Monday, hailing Russia’s withdrawal — a humiliating defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin — as the “beginning of the end of the war.”

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office and posted on Facebook, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, awards a serviceman during his visit to Kherson, Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. Ukraine’s retaking of Kherson was a significant setback for the Kremlin and it came some six weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the Kherson region and three other provinces in southern and eastern Ukraine — in breach of international law — and declared them Russian territory. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

People are no longer afraid to leave home, or worried that contact with Russian soldiers might lead to a prison or torture cell. They are gathering in city squares — adorned with blue-and-yellow ribbons on their bags and jackets — to recharge phones, collect water, or talk with neighbors and relatives.

“If we survived the occupation, we will survive this without any problems,” said Yulia Nenadyschuk, 53, who had been hunkered down at home with her husband, Oleksandr, since the Russian invasion began but now comes downtown every day.

FILE – A Ukrainian defense force member signs a Ukrainian flag to a resident in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. Ukraine liberated Kherson more than one week ago, and the city’s streets are revived for the first time in many months. People no longer sit in their homes in fear of meeting the Russians. Instead, they gather in the city’s squares to recharge their phones, collect water and catch a connection to talk to their relatives. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, file)

The worst deprivation was the lack of freedom to be yourself, which was like being in a “cage,” she said.

“You couldn’t say anything out loud, you couldn’t speak Ukrainian,” said Oleksandr Nenadyschuk, 57. “We were constantly being watched, you couldn’t even look around.”

Residents of Kherson talk about the “silent terror” that defined their occupation, which was different than the devastating military siege that turned other Ukrainian cities — such as Mariupol, Sievierodonetsk, and Lysychansk — to rubble.

FILE – Two Ukrainian defense forces members stand next to a sign reading “Kherson region” in the outskirts of Kherson, southern Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. Ukraine liberated Kherson more than one week ago, and the city’s streets are revived for the first time in many months. People no longer sit in their homes in fear of meeting the Russians. Instead, they gather in the city’s squares to recharge their phones, collect water and catch a connection to talk to their relatives. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, file)

Russian forces entered Kherson in the early days of the war from nearby Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014, and shortly after that, it was occupied.

People mostly communicate in Russian in Kherson. Early on in the war some residents there were tolerant of neighbors who sympathized with Russia, but over the past nine months there has been a palpable shift, said Smoliana, the pharmacist. “I’m even ashamed to speak Russian,” she said. “They oppressed us emotionally and physically.”

Many people fled the city, but some just disappeared.

FILE – People try to connect to the internet and make phone calls on central square in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022. Ukraine liberated Kherson more than one week ago, and the city’s streets are revived for the first time in many months. People no longer sit in their homes in fear of meeting the Russians. Instead, they gather in the city’s squares to recharge their phones, collect water and catch a connection to talk to their relatives. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)

Khrystyna Yuldasheva, 18, works in a shop across the street from a building the Russian police used as a detention center and where Ukrainian officials are investigating allegations of torture and abuse.

“There is no one here anymore,” she told a woman who recently came by looking for her son.

Other people sought to leave, but couldn’t. “We tried to leave three times, but they closed all possible exits from the city,” said Tetiana, 37, who didn’t want to be identified by her last name.

Residents gather during a visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. Ukraine’s retaking of Kherson was a significant setback for the Kremlin and it came some six weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the Kherson region and three other provinces in southern and eastern Ukraine — in breach of international law — and declared them Russian territory. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

When Russian soldiers retreated on Nov. 11 from Kherson, the only regional capital Moscow captured since the invasion began on Feb. 24, they left a city devoid of basic infrastructure — water, electricity, transportation or communications.

Russian products can still be found in small shops that survived through occupation. And the city is still adorned with banners touting Russian propaganda like “Ukrainians and Russians are a single nation,” or that encourage Ukrainians to get a Russian passport. (Some people curse out loud when walking past them.)

A Kherson resident hugs a Ukrainian defence force member in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022. The retaking of Kherson was one of Ukraine’s biggest successes in the nearly nine months since Moscow’s invasion. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Many shops, restaurants and hotels are stills closed and many people are out of work. But residents have been drawn downtown this past week by truckloads of food from Ukrainian supermarket chains that have arrived and internet hotspots that have been set up.

While people were euphoric immediately after the Russian withdrawal, Kherson remains a city on hold.

Ukrainians gather in downtown to celebrate the recapturing of Kherson city, Ukraine, Odesa, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022. People across Ukraine awoke from a night of jubilant celebrating after the Kremlin announced its troops had withdrawn to the other side of the Dnieper River from Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia’s military during the ongoing invasion. (AP Photo/Nina Lyashonok)

A major obstacle to bringing residents back to Kherson, and to the rebuilding effort, will be clearing all of the mines that the Russians placed inside administrative offices and around critical infrastructure, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“Demining is needed here to bring life back,” said Mary Akopian, Ukraine’s deputy minister of internal affairs. She says Kherson has a bigger problem with mines than any of the other cities Ukraine has liberated from the Russians because it had been under occupation for the longest period of time.

Newly wed Ukrainians hold a Ukrainian flag as people gather in downtown to celebrate the recapturing of Kherson city, Ukraine, Odesa, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022. People across Ukraine awoke from a night of jubilant celebrating after the Kremlin announced its troops had withdrawn to the other side of the Dnieper River from Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia’s military during the ongoing invasion. (AP Photo/Nina Lyashonok)

She estimated it would take years to completely clear mines from the city of Kherson and surrounding areas. Already, 25 people have died clearing mines and other explosives left behind in Kherson, and dozens of civilians who hastened to return home were killed by mines.

Before retreating, Russian soldiers looted from stores and businesses — and even museums. The Ukrainian government estimates that 15,000 artifacts have been stolen from museums in the Kherson region and taken to nearby Crimea.

FILE – Ammunition boxes lay outside a destroyed school on the outskirts of a recently liberated village outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. Ukraine liberated Kherson more than one week ago, and the city’s streets are revived for the first time in many months. People no longer sit in their homes in fear of meeting the Russians. Instead, they gather in the city’s squares to recharge their phones, collect water and catch a connection to talk to their relatives. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, file)

“There is, in fact, nothing there,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official in Zelensky’s office, wrote in his Telegram channel after a trip to the Kherson region. “The Russians killed and mined and robbed all cities and towns.”

The humiliating Russian retreat did not bring an end to the sounds of war in Kherson. About 70% of the wider Kherson region is still in Russian hands. Explosions can regularly be heard in the city, although locals aren’t always sure whether its part of the mine-removal effort, or the sound of Russian and Ukrainian artillery.

FILE – A view of a Russian tank and destroyed buildings of a recently liberated village on the outskirts of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. Ukraine liberated Kherson more than one week ago, and the city’s streets are revived for the first time in many months. People no longer sit in their homes in fear of meeting the Russians. Instead, they gather in the city’s squares to recharge their phones, collect water and catch a connection to talk to their relatives. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, file)

Despite the ongoing fighting nearby, people in Kherson feel confident enough about their safety to ignore air-raid warning sirens and gather in large numbers on the streets — to greet each other and to thank Ukrainian soldiers.

Like many residents, the Nenadyschuks do not wince when they hear the explosions in the distance, and they are loathe to complain about any other difficulty they face.

“We are holding on. We are waiting for victory. We won’t whine,” said Yulia Nenadyschuk. “All of Ukraine,” her husband added, “is in this state now.”

Read more international news

Previous Article
Algeria Defies US Through Exercises With Russia
Next Article
GOP pushes Hunter Biden probe despite thin majority

How useful was this article?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this article.

Latest News

Menu