(Kherson) “Come on! Show your hands, get your papers out! “: on a beach on the banks of the Dnieper in Kherson, in the south of Ukraine, police armed with Kalashnikovs aim at two men who have just docked with their boat.
The scene takes place on the right bank of the river, downstream from the city liberated on November 11 by soldiers from Kyiv, after eight months of occupation by Russian forces, now withdrawn to the left bank.
It symbolizes the climate of suspicion that reigns in Kherson, where the authorities still fear the presence of people who allegedly collaborated, or even still collaborate, with the Russians, and seek to identify them.
The two men had just evacuated one of the islands bordering the eastern shore, a gray area where Ukrainian forces are absent and which is de facto controlled by Moscow, even if Russian soldiers are invisible there.
“Evacuations are only allowed at the port (of Kherson). It’s illegal here,” one of the police officers told AFP.
At the port, “there are those responsible for these ‘stabilization measures’ who check whether people were involved or not” in the collaboration, he continues.
But the control is cut short: two rockets fall on an island 200 meters in front of the beach, releasing a plume of black smoke.
The Dnieper has become the new front line.
The two men and the police ran away to take cover. The interrogation will resume once calm has returned.
Strong police presence
After the euphoria of liberation, Kherson now lives under tight police control, which is very present and visible.
Filtering points at the exits of the city, patrols in the streets: the men in blue check identity papers, ask questions, search the trunks of cars, to flush out “collaborators”.
These people have been here for over eight months. They worked for the Russian regime and now we have information and documents on each of them. Our police know everything about them and each of them will be punished.
Yaroslav Yanushevich, governor of the Kherson region
At a large crossroads at the end of a bridge that leads to the industrial and port area, an old man approaches one of the police officers who are screening cars and passers-by. He asks him where he can go to fill the two carboys in his hand with water.
“You say you’re a local and you don’t know where the water point is? “Asks, suspicious, the policeman. The man will have to show a used photocopy taken out of his pocket to prove his identity.
Checks are also made at the station, where some inhabitants still evacuate the city by a daily train.
In a separate room, five police officers are seated in front of as many small tables and each interrogate an evacuee seated opposite, AFP noted.
Denounce the “traitors”
PHOTO GENYA SAVILOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A graffiti reads: “The first rule of the Kherson club: Kherson is Ukrainian, always and without compromise. »
On certain avenues of the city, the large propaganda posters of the occupier which praised Russia have disappeared in favor of others in glory of the liberation of Kherson.
But other posters also appeared inviting residents to denounce those who collaborated with the Russian forces.
“Provide information on traitors here”, indicates one of them by referring to the QR code of an application or a telephone number.
“This helps us to identify them, to know if they are on the territory that we control”, justifies the governor of the region.
“Most of the information is received from the local population during simple conversations […] We are also analyzing social media accounts and continuing to monitor the internet,” Andrii Kovanyi, head of public relations for the Kherson region police, told AFP.
After the police, the Ukrainian security services (SBU) take over the investigations.
According to Deputy Interior Minister Yevgen Yenine, more than 130 people have already been arrested for collaboration in the Kherson region.
Questioned in front of one of the panels, residents were rather favorable to the principle of denunciation.
Pavel, 40, who does not wish to give his name, considers “always good to help find a collaborator or a traitor. We must help our armed forces to catch those who worked for Russia”.
Since the liberation of the city, Russian strikes have targeted energy infrastructure, but also homes, and civilians have been killed.
“Our houses are also being bombed at the moment. And I think that they are collaborators who help (the Russian forces) to target our houses, ”says Iryna, 35, for her part.
On the other hand, Vyacheslav believes he knows “that all the collaborators have already fled to the other side” of the Dnieper.
“We are all Ukrainian patriots here,” says the 47-year-old man.