In Kherson, shortage of medicines and soldiers searching the houses: the inhabitants of this city in the south of Ukraine have drawn up with AFP a grim portrait of life under the Russian occupation.
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Kherson, which had about 283,000 inhabitants before the war launched on February 24, is at the mouth of the Dnieper and not far from annexed Crimea. It is the only major city that the Russian army has so far claimed to have taken on March 3.
AFP was able to collect testimonies by telephone from six residents of Kherson, where no international media is present. They asked that their surname not be published for fear of reprisals.
According to these residents, Russian forces have blocked food and humanitarian aid deliveries to Kherson, and medicine is also in short supply.
“Another month like this and they won’t even have to bomb us. Hunger and disease will do the job,” worries Kyryllo, a paramedic.
All residents interviewed by AFP also said they had seen or heard of visits by Russian soldiers to the apartments.
“They were looking for people whose names are on some sort of lists. They enter the houses and are armed, it is impossible to resist them”, explains Tetyana, a university employee.
A resident of the nearby town of Kakhovka, also under Russian control, said Moscow forces were “taking people away”, mainly local activists and former military personnel.
“We don’t know where they are taking them,” she breathes.
Empty pharmacies
The United States assured last week that Kherson was a “disputed city” and that Kyiv had launched an offensive to regain control of it.
The inhabitants assure them that, if fighting is still taking place on the outskirts of the city, Kherson is well under the control of Moscow.
Kherson, however, did not experience the massive destruction and heavy human toll of fighting for other Ukrainian cities such as Mariupol in the southeast and Cherniguiv in the north.
And despite the presence of Russian forces, residents were able to organize protest demonstrations in the central square.
“We are under occupation, but we are still for Ukraine,” summarizes Maria, a 24-year-old saleswoman.
Residents interviewed by AFP said their main concern since the arrival of Russian tanks was the worsening health crisis.
Insulin and other essential drugs began to run out in the first weeks of the occupation. “Pharmacy shelves are empty. There is only water”, testifies the paramedic Kyryllo.
Volunteers go around the apartments to buy medicine, while ambulances are only called in the event of an extreme emergency, because “there is no petrol”, he adds.
Food supplies are also at their lowest. While meat and vegetables are still available, prices have doubled, and pasta and barley are scarce.
“They are not letting humanitarian aid arrive. For a month, there has been no food delivery,” accuses Aliona, who works in communications.
“They search everything”
While there were rumors of the introduction of the Russian ruble in Kherson, residents confirmed to AFP that the Ukrainian hryvnia was still the currency in circulation.
And despite relatively calm days in the city, fighting rages in the nearby village of Chornobaivka.
“Every night we wake up to the sound of gunshots. Like an alarm clock, ”says the academic Tetyana.
The Ukrainian authorities claimed to have killed a Russian general in Chornobaivka; President Volodymyr Zelensky felt the battle “will go down in history.”
Kyiv also claimed this week to have regained control of several villages in the Kherson region. In those that remain under Russian control, life has also changed.
Maria, who lives in Kakhovka up the Dnieper River, says she can no longer get to her job at a furniture store in a nearby town. The road passes through a Russian army checkpoint.
“They search everything. They look at your phone, your private messages, you have to delete everything, ”she testifies. From then on, the inhabitants only travel in case of “absolute necessity”.
According to her, Kherson was not ready for the Russian attack from neighboring Crimea. Moscow forces immediately took control of the hydroelectric power station located in Kakhovka.
Maria, she is still in shock from an attack of such magnitude from a country where her father lives.
“My father is in Russia and tells me that everything is wrong,” she laments. She stopped calling him.