Occupied: How the Kherson Residents Survived the Russian Occupation
On November 11, Ukrainian soldiers entered Kherson. They were greeted by crowds of locals with Ukrainian flags. It was amazing how people managed to save these symbols during the Russian occupation when it was dangerous to have even a mobile app with the Ukrainian flag on your smartphone. What they had to endure during these months? Here you can read a short account of that.
Kherson was the only Ukrainian regional hub Russians captured since the start of the full-scale invasion. There was no easy walk for them. The fierce struggle for the Antonivsky bridge that connects the city with the left bank of Dnipro continued for two or three days. On March 1, the Russians eventually entered Kherson.
A local activist, Olga Zhukova, recalled:
I first saw the occupiers from my window on the first of March, when they entered the city on armored personnel carriers. They drove along my street for 10–15 meters. And my apartment is on the first floor. I did not have time to close the curtains and it so happened that the armored personnel carrier stopped in front of my window. The soldiers sat and looked at me. And I look at them. Then I was afraid to move so that I wouldn’t be shot when I moved. We stood like that for several minutes. After that, they dispersed along the street and began combing the neighborhood, knocking on people’s windows. This is how the occupation began for me. Every day they ride in armored personnel carriers, trucks, and are always armed. And this has become a familiar picture since I live in the center.
Russians didn’t expect that locals would burst into the streets to protest against the occupation. These rallies weren’t similar to those in Russia where people just stood with slogans and were afraid of fighting with riot police. In Kherson, Ukrainians even jumped on the armor with flags. “It seemed to us that we had won and proved that we should not be released. But then the Rosgvardia SOBR came to Kherson — these are security forces who work directly with the population. And then the repressions started”, Kostyantyn Ryzhenko, a local journalist and partisan, said.
Pro-Ukrainian rallies lasted until the end of March. Firstly, the occupiers simply watched and pretended to be indifferent. But eventually, Russians lost their nerve. It must have been annoying for them to understand that people weren’t glad to see them. And they started to disperse the meetings. Olga Zhukova told the Monologues of the War:
The last peaceful rally was held on March 20. The next day, the occupiers began to disperse us. They worked according to a standard scheme: first, they called on people to disperse, because the mythical commandant forbids peaceful gatherings, after that, they formed a chain and attacked people. We were pelted with tear gas and stun grenades. Then they came closer and shot into the air. If people did not disperse, they shot in the legs. After each crackdown, 5–7 people were hospitalized with injuries, poisoning, and beatings.
Russians already had lists of lists of pro-Ukrainian activists, ATO participants, law enforcement officers, and SSU (Security service of Ukraine) when entering the city. Many of these people who didn’t manage to leave the city were taken away. “In Kherson, everyone knew where the torture rooms were in the basements. There they extracted information about partisans, the Armed Forces, and the SBU from people. Sometimes they tortured just to make others afraid, without a purpose. Some were shot demonstratively”, Kostyantyn Ryzhenko said.
Some of the locals who experienced the Russian occupation told: “Every time you leave home it’s like entering open space”. The occupiers could arrest and beat people for nothing. So locals tried to remove everything that might be suspicious on their smartphones: pro-Ukrainian pictures, groups, messages, Telegram channels, browser history, etc. But that didn’t save people from detention. Some of them could be arrested just for not having cigarettes to give to the soldiers (you can see one of such stories here).
Now the Ukrainian authorities are just starting to investigate the Russian atrocities in Kherson. And they are shocked by its scale. This is what the Ukrainian human rights chief Dmytro Lubinets said after visiting Kherson:
I have probably never seen such a scale. And I personally visited all the torture chambers in different regions of Ukraine. The scale is just terrible… It seems that Russians get some pleasure from it when they kill and torture our citizens.
When open non-violent resistance became impossible guerilla fighters started to act. They tracked down local collaborators and punished them by organizing attempts on their lives. And some of those attempts were successful. Also, they spread leaflets, glued posters, and painted graffiti, addressing both the Russian military and locals. For example, one leaflet had a QR code that redirected to a Ukrainian government website with specific instructions about how to approach a Ukrainian soldier to surrender. Another leaflet called locals to mark the places where Russians were going to organize their staged referendum.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine were doing a good job as well. Using Western artillery and other means, it steadily destroyed the occupiers’ supply chains. Three big bridges across Dnipro were seriously damaged and Russians had to use pontoons that were far less reliable. Eventually, their military commanders announced withdrawal and on November 11 the Ukrainian troops entered Kherson.
Russians left the city in a horrible condition — without electricity, running water, and communication. Many objects were mined and destroyed. It will take a long time to make Kherson comfortable for its residents but they are happy because now they have freedom. And that’s the thing Ukrainians value the most.
To learn more about how Kherson residents survived during the Russian occupation, read their stories on the Monologues of the War.
