edited by: nitya thirumalai
Last Update: February 26, 2023, 13:13 IST
People help clear debris at a damaged bus station after Russian shelling in Kherson, Ukraine, on February 21, 2023. (Reuters/Lissi Niessner)
Kherson was occupied for nine whole months. It was a direct punishment. Its residents bravely faced tanks to push back the Russians. Now the punishment comes from across the river to the left bank where the Russians have entrenched
A deserted little street snakes with abandoned houses near the Dnipro River in Kherson. Most of the houses have been marked by shelling by the Russians across the river. Shelling, rocket attacks, bullet marks from snipers across the road – the Russians hit this Ukrainian side with what they have and when they like. Although not missiles, you wouldn’t need them for firing at such close range.
Only the crooked road is left. Too many shells have fallen so far for which it has been left far enough. And yet, when the moment comes, people drive down this imaginary road faster than any autobahn in Germany.
This small road, parallel to the river, is now the border between the Ukrainian and Russian armies. The Russians had also captured the right bank, where the city of Kherson is located, since the start of the invasion more than a year earlier. At the end of last year, Ukrainian troops surrounded them on three sides until the Russians had just the river behind them. Their supply lines were cut. In November, the Russians retreated on the other side, infuriated but intelligently.
punishment
Now the Russians are punishing the city of Kherson for their loss. “They launch about 100 attacks a day on the Ukrainian side from across the river,” Ukrainian army officer Sergeev Serhiy Seriovich told CNN-News18. “Many people have been killed, and almost all the houses here bear the marks of the Russian attacks.”
Inexplicably, it seems, some people here still haven’t gone. Some people never do. But most have. In fact, it appears that nearly everyone has. Kherson is now a ghost town. Every now and then a person can be seen on the road. Kherson manages to run some local buses, two or three people get on board. Kherson’s bus drivers should be counted among the many unsung heroes of the city.
Kherson remained under Russian occupation for nine months. It was a direct punishment. Avoiding Russian bullying and worse was a daily challenge. And yet, the residents of Kherson rose to challenge the Russian occupation. They repeatedly came out into the streets to confront Russian tanks, waving Ukrainian flags, demanding the Russians return.
Now the punishment comes from across the river to the left bank where the Russians have entrenched. They were driven out, but they are determined not to let Kherson go without them, as Kherson fought until they were captured.
Street
Traveling to this part of Kherson opposite the river proved to be a challenge. In the days of military permission. It was eventually allowed under military protection, with the mandatory requirement of wearing helmets and bullet-proof jackets.
The security of standing as a shelter behind a row of houses standing between the road and the river and the Russians on the other side. A long section of the still-broken Antonievsky bridge had no cover. The military driver warned us to hold on tight when he was ready to take us this way. The driver dropped us at a speed of around 200 kmph. Its purpose was to give some time to the Russians to target us. Luckily for us, the momentum worked.
Kherson now sits divided. The city is owned by Ukrainians, or to put it more accurately, the remains of what was a city. And yet, we could see another Russian invasion, or a Ukrainian counter-invasion. The uneasy silence may again give way to all-out war.
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