(Kherson) After the Russian army, just thrown back from the other side of the river, shelled the industrial zone and set fire to an oil depot not far from their building in Kherson, in the south of Ukraine, Yuri Mosolov and his wife decided it was time to leave.
They loaded the sacks into their canoe on the banks of the Dnieper, and traveled down the river to their summer dacha, where they hope to escape the fighting and the bombardments which are now beating Kherson.
For eight months, they endured the occupation by the Russian army, which seized Kherson shortly after the start of the war launched by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine on February 24.
But just a week after Ukrainian forces recaptured Kherson from the Russians, Yuri Mosolov sensed a new danger hanging over the city.
“We survived the occupation, we will survive the bombardments,” he told AFP on Sunday, watching the columns of black smoke rising above the nearby industrial zone.
But strikes on the oil depot near their home shook the couple.
“After yesterday’s shelling, my wife said, ‘Don’t take too many risks, let’s go,’” Mosolov explained.
New front line
During the eight months of occupation, Kherson was largely spared the fierce fighting and artillery shelling that left other cities in ruins like Mariupol, another southern port city that fell to the Russians.
A carefully planned counter-offensive by Ukraine, which broke Russian supply lines by hitting bridges and barges on the river, forced Moscow’s army to abandon the city and retreat to the eastern bank. of the Dnieper.
The two armies, which face each other on either side of this imposing river, are now increasingly engaged in exchanges of heavy artillery fire, the echo of which regularly resounds in the city.
“The artillery duels continue, the fight continues,” said Dmytro Pletentchouk, spokesman for the Ukrainian military in the area. “Kherson is now on the front line.”
Not far from the city, Russian artillery hit a humanitarian aid distribution point in the village of Bilozerka on Saturday.
“Everyone is scared”
Sunday, the places, where an open-air market was usually held, were practically deserted, the inhabitants remaining holed up in their homes for fear of new strikes.
“You see, there is no one left because everyone is scared,” said Anna Kovalska, 38, who runs a shop nearby.
Many fear that the regular shelling is a harbinger of fighting to come.
The Ukrainian army seems to have undertaken to bring its heavy weapons closer to the city to hit the Russian positions beyond the Dnieper.
The population is already enduring power and running water cuts at the onset of winter, as Russian forces destroyed the city’s infrastructure before leaving Kherson.
“We are not afraid of being without water and electricity, but we are afraid of explosions,” said Alyouna Yanyk, 43, who works in a grocery store near Kherson’s industrial zone.
But for many, even if the Russians unleash their full firepower on the city, there will be no question of leaving.
” I’m afraid. The bombs now fall every hour,” says Serguei Goudym, the chief engineer of the oil depot, busy assessing the damage inflicted on his installations. ” I will stay. I have nowhere to go”.