War in Ukraine | In Kherson, “everyone is in danger”

More than three months after the Russian army invaded Ukraine, voices are calling on Kyiv to accept territorial compromises. The experience of Kherson, a city subjected to the Russian army since 1^er March shows what awaits Ukrainians in the areas occupied by their powerful neighbor.

Agnes Gruda
The Press

The photo was taken in January when Kherson was still displaying its Christmas decorations. This is the last image where Alisa Gorshkova appears alongside her cousin Andrei Gorshkov in a carefree pose.

A month later, Russia invaded Ukraine. 1^er March, the Russian army took control of Kherson, a city of 300,000 inhabitants located on the border with Crimea.

Since then, around 40% of Kherson residents have fled the city. The others live in a regime of terror.

Like thousands of Ukrainians, Andrei Gorshkov, 28, joined the ranks of the Territorial Defense on the first day of the Russian offensive.

On March 30, about fifteen Russian soldiers showed up at his house. Neighbors saw Andrei trying to escape through the window. Then being pushed into a vehicle and taken to an unknown destination.

When she reported to the Russian command post to hear from Andrei, Alisa was threatened with deportation.

“They told me that if I wanted to stay alive, I had to go to Russia,” she testified in a telephone interview from Germany on Tuesday.

The first information about Andreï was not reassuring. A fellow prisoner released as part of a prisoner exchange told him about the “torture chamber” where several prisoners, including Andrei, were mistreated.

Feeling the hot soup, Alisa took the road to exile. For several weeks, she lost track of her cousin. Then she received a message from Andrei’s phone saying her cousin would be prosecuted for crimes against Russia in Crimea, annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2014.

When she contacted the prison where Andrei was supposed to be held, in Sevastopol, she was told that he was not there. The last message sent from his phone dates from May 10. Since then, it’s been silent.

Purges, kidnappings, torture

Andreï Gorshkov is only one of the victims of the regime of fear established by the Russian occupier.

In a report published on June 6, the Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian NGO, claims that the FSB, the Russian security service, is conducting a massive manhunt in Kherson.

The report lists 10 places of detention where “detainees were severely beaten and tortured”.

Who is targeted by these summary arrests? First, people suspected of having joined the Ukrainian Territorial Defence.

Then, the local leaders and their relatives.

Then, all those who are identified as pro-Ukrainian intellectuals or militants.

And finally, ordinary citizens.

Between two chairs

After three months of occupation, Kherson is no longer quite in Ukraine, but not in Russia either.

Ukrainian communication networks have been cut.

To have a Russian SIM card, you must present your passport to the new authorities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently urged residents of Kherson not to share their personal details with the occupier for fear that they might be used to legitimize a possible referendum proposing to annex Kherson to Russia.

But for the people of Kherson, it’s that or no phone at all.

The occupier set up a new administration, replacing Mayor Igor Kolykhayev with a local pro-Russian militant and subjecting the region to a new “Committee for Peace and Order”.

The deputy director of this committee, Kyrylo Stremousov, announced that he was going to ask Moscow to annex the Kherson region. The Kremlin replied that the project was going to be put to the vote.

The Russian occupier is acting on two axes, summarizes Natalia Kudriavtseva, a Ukrainian political scientist who has also left Kherson, in an article published by an American research institute, the Wilson Center.

On the one hand, propaganda operations, such as distributions of food aid, aim to show that the inhabitants of Kherson have welcomed the Russian army with open arms.

The other axis is that of repression and intimidation through an artificially created humanitarian crisis.

“The ‘liberation’ of Kherson takes the form of repressive measures with purges and confiscation of food as in Stalin’s time,” writes Natalia Kudriavtseva.

Kherson suffers from shortages of medicines and basic foodstuffs, confirms Alisa Gorshkova.

“Diabetics no longer have access to insulin, there are bars that offer milk and breweries that sell drugs. »

The “Russification” of Kherson is also reflected in an attempt to replace the local currency, the hryvnia, with the rouble. Traders are resisting, says Alisa Gorshkova, but the pressure is on, especially as the local banking system is hanging by a thread.

The teachers were invited to a meeting where they were asked to modify their program. They reacted by closing the schools at the end of April, she testifies. But what will they do in the fall?

For now, Kherson is sitting between two chairs. “It looks like we’re back in the USSR, in the XX^e century,” laments Alisa Gorshkova.

She clings to the hope that her town will eventually be liberated. By returning to Ukraine. And in the XXI^e century.