For eight months, residents of ukrainian city of Kherson lived under brutal Russian occupation. But on Friday (11), Ukrainian forces entered the city and Russian troops retreated to the east of the country.
People don’t have water or internet connection. Electricity is scarce. Even so, the team at CNN who arrived in the city on Saturday (12) witnessed an atmosphere of euphoria.
As the crew filmed in Kherson’s central square, some residents sang the national anthem, while others chanted “Slava Ukrainyini!”, meaning “Glory to Ukraine,” a patriotic salute.
“We are feeling free, we are not slaves, we are Ukrainians,” said Olga, a resident of Kherson.
Freedom
Some citizens climbed to the top of buildings, including the cinema building in the central square, to raise Ukrainian flags. Ukrainian soldiers arriving in Kherson are greeted with applause and sign autographs on flags.
When the Russian military arrived here at the beginning of the war, the city tried to resist. People were kidnapped, tortured and disappeared, as residents now say.
“We were terrorized by the Russian army, by soldiers who could come at any time to our house, to our home: they would just open the door, as if they lived there, and they would steal, kidnap, torture,” Olga reported.
Now, however, now, residents gather in the central square of the newly liberated city, draped in Ukrainian flags, chanting and chanting “freedom for Ukraine”.
“Everyone here came to celebrate in the square. People fly the Ukrainian flag, hug the soldiers, go out to see what it’s like to have freedom,” correspondent Nic Robertson said.
Katerina described the release as the “best day” of her life after eight months of Russian occupation. “Our city is free, my street is free,” she said.
Another local resident named Andrew said he was very happy to see Ukrainian soldiers.
“I think a lot of people died here. We still don’t know everything,” he said, recalling the occupation months.
the team of CNN was apparently the first by foreign journalists to reach Kherson’s city center since it changed hands in the last 48 hours.
Russian withdrawal
On Friday, Russia announced that it had withdrawn from the west bank of the Dnipro River in the strategic South Kherson region, leaving the regional capital of the same name and adjacent areas to Ukrainians.
The withdrawal represents a major blow to Putin’s war efforts in Ukraine. Kherson has been the only Ukrainian regional capital that Russian forces have captured since the invasion in February. The exit to the East across the river
Dnipro returns large swaths of land that Russia had occupied in the early days of the war, and that Putin had formally declared Russian territory just five weeks ago.
“It was a very difficult time for everyone. All Ukrainian families waited for our soldiers, for our army,” a resident of Kherson told CNN on Saturday, recalling the months of Russian occupation.
The woman said it was “surprising” to see Ukrainian troops in Kherson.
“We feel your support every day, thank you,” added the woman, who then hugged her correspondent. CNN 🇧🇷
Speaking on Saturday (12) about the next steps for the Ukrainian military, the military analyst CNN Cedric Leighton said: “It will be a huge urban operation. What we will see is a methodical operation to clear buildings of potential booby traps and mines.”
“Another thing the Ukrainians will have to do is advance their systems to be able to counter any possible Russian artillery that might be on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River,” Leighton continued.
“You can see that the Ukrainians have moved to this bank of the river, that they now control this area, and they will have to drive out some Russian forces that still haven’t managed to get out of the west bank of the Dnipro. But, those who are still there will likely surrender or end up eliminated in battle,” he concluded.
On Friday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of celebrations in the city. In it, a crowd waved flags and sang for the “ZSU” (acronym for the Ukrainian armed forces).
Earlier in the day, the southern operational command of Ukrainian forces said Russian troops were “hurriedly boarding boats that seemed suitable for crossing and trying to escape” across the river.
It was unclear whether all Russian troops had left Kherson and the region as a whole. Serhiy Khlan, a member of Kherson’s regional council, said the city was “almost under the full control of Ukraine’s armed forces”, but warned that some Russian servicemen could have remained in place wearing civilian attire.
Khlan warned that many Russians “have taken off their military uniforms and are now hiding in civilian clothes”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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