in liberated Kherson, Ukrainians have to deal with power or network problems

We quickly spot them, these inhabitants, frozen at the corner of a street, their noses in the telephone. “We are looking for the network!“, said Natalya, a housewife. “We try to contact our relatives, it’s difficult, we can’t hear from them!” So she waits there, very close to a small satellite antenna, which a passing journalist has placed there.

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The Ukrainian President, on a surprise visit Monday, November 14 to Kherson, declared that the recapture of the territories occupied by the forces of Moscow would be “a long and difficult road”Russia having destroyed “all critical infrastructure” in the city, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. “Most of the liberated region of Kherson has been without electricity since November 6”said the President of the Ukrainian energy transmission system operator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytsky.

And suddenly his phone rings: “Hello my son? Yes, I’m here!” Natalya turns to us: “He’s my son, he’s calling me from Kharkiv, he’s worried!” Rostislavhis boy has fled Kherson from the start of the war, to settle at the other end of the country. Nataliashe did not want to leave, to stay close to her 82-year-old father who absolutely wanted to see –of its eyes- the Ukrainians come back. “We can say now that everything is fine. We survived these nine months! When our soldiers entered the city, the first day, we could not believe it. We had tears in our eyes.”

We leave NOTatalya take advantage of finally having his son on the line. Then like a flock of sparrows, everyone is changing sidewalks! Someone spotted another signal across the way. “Oh! There you go. Once again, everyone is chasing the Starlink dish!” With his earmuffs on the head, Clavdia confirm: the satellites ofElon Musk are of great help, for the Ukrainians. That’s all that works here.

“Everything else is cut! It is very important to update our friends in Ukraine, outside of Kherson, to say that here we are fine.”

A dull sound of explosion interrupts us. “Oh, that happens all the time, she says. Sometimes it hits very hard. But we got used to it.” Clavdiahowever, still smiles: “MeI believed from day one that Ukraine would be back here.“