“You can’t imagine how hard it was”, the emotion of the freed inhabitants of Kherson who came to thank the army

Relief. She looks with eyes full of tears at her little seven-year-old boy, draped in the colors of Ukraine, who is taking a break with a soldier: “I love them, they’re cool!”, loose the young boy under his hood. Valentina and her son Danya, came from the city, arms full of provisions, such as apples and homemade fruit preserves, to offer them to “their” soldiers. Although the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson was officially announced a few days earlier, the city is still inaccessible and without a network.

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“I’m very happy that they came back. You can’t imagine how hard it was”, she says, crying. For a week still no water, network and electricity. And the little one’s school? “The Russians offered us 10,000 rubles (160 euros, editor’s note) so that he follows the school curriculum in Moscow.” Valentina refused, but a friend of hers relented and Valentina describes: “His son had to sing the Russian anthem every morning.”

Maksym, her husband, tells about Russian filtering and surveillance. “Our cell phones, our voicemails were systematically checked! There were long queues in my neighborhood. Even to get diapers for our baby, we could spend four or five hours at the roadblock…” And above all, it details searches in apartments and acts of torture. “One out of two young people around me experienced this: being wrongly accused of having weapons. The torture was terrible. Burns on the genitals, taser blows, electric shocks to the ears… The secret services going to have work.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also accused Russian forces of committing “atrocities” in Kherson. “The bodies of those killed are found: those of civilians and soldiers. In the Kherson region, the Russian army left behind the same atrocities as in other regions of our country, where it was able to enter“, thus accused kyiv, Sunday evening. According to the president, 400 “war crimes” Russians had been documented, without specifying whether they concerned only the Kherson region.

A hot soup for Ukrainian soldiers. At the checkpoint, at the entrance to the city of #Kherson liberated, residents come to distribute food. #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/VmNI0MGu0X

— Gilles Gallinaro (@GallinaroG) November 13, 2022

And then, suddenly, four women arrive in their turn, making great gestures. They also bring from Kherson, Borscht (a beet-based soup) to all the soldiers. The checkpoint looks like a canteen. And the soldiers accept a bowl of steaming soup. Like an air of celebration, of liberation, even if all the barriers have not yet been lifted. Neither does the Russian threat, just on the other side of the Dnieper.

Valentina confirms: “We’re afraid they’ll shoot Kherson. They can’t just walk away.” So as soon as it is possible, Valentina, Maksym and their children would like to leave Kherson and go and live in Odessa for a while, to find shelter.