These Khersonians residents were openly protesting against the occupation. But as Russia tightened its grip, some of them continued their protest in more subtle ways – despite the risks of being kidnapped or killed.
Kindergarten teacher Olena Naumova was struggling to breathe as she sat in the back seat of a car driving through the streets of her hometown of Kherson on the morning of Aug. 23. There was a tight plastic bag over her head and three Russian soldiers surrounded her. Naumova knew
Editor’s Note: We don’t reveal the real names of the people interviewed for this story due to the sensitive nature of their activities that puts them in direct danger. In the story, names were assigned to them for storytelling purposes. KHERSON – Kherson was liberated because Ukraine forced Russians
ne of the recent victims of Russian barbarism is the Kherson Regional Local Lore Museum, which used to have around 180,000 exhibits in its collection. Now, the shelves of some of its halls stand completely empty.
SNIHURIVKA, Mykolaiv Oblast — When Russian forces seized her town, chemistry teacher Natalia Vorobiova had a choice: collaborate and be left alone or defy them and risk everything. She chose defiance. Even after Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) threatened to abduct and imprison her in Siberia, she continued to refuse to
KHERSON – KYIV – Kherson residents sat in an eerily quiet overnight train to Kyiv. It was Nov. 25, and they were leaving their hometown for the first time since February. The evacuees spent almost nine months under Russian occupation in Kherson, waiting for the arrival of Ukrainian forces. But a few
KHERSON – When Russia captured Kherson in March, disrupting supply chains to the city, local Ukrainian volunteers kept it running. When people had no food, they set up free hot meal cafeterias. When people had no medicine or hygiene goods, they brought them in from Odesa. When children needed to take
KHERSON — Housed in a grand imperial building with a view out onto the Dnipro River, the Kherson Fine Arts Museum once hosted one of the richest collections in all of Ukraine. As with the rest of Kherson, which had its electricity infrastructure destroyed by withdrawing Russian forces in early November,
KHERSON — Huge numbers of Ukrainians were detained by Russians occupying Kherson. Many of them were interrogated by torture. The chief prosecutor of Kherson Oblast, Volodymyr Kalyuga, said that locals were tortured at four sites throughout the city. According to interviews with local officials and residents, these included a pre-trial detention
KHERSON – Standing outside her small, dimly lit grocery store, Natalia chain-smokes several cigarettes until a customer finally shows up at the door. The 48-year-old shopkeeper misses being busy all day. More than a week after Ukrainian forces recaptured her native Kherson, she is still waiting for her long-time customers to
Dozens gathered at the Kherson railway station on Nov. 19 to greet the first train from Kyiv that arrived in the city after eight months of Russia's occupation. Many have reunited with their loved ones for the first time in months.
KHERSON — Svitlana Dosenko stood dangerously close to the edge of the platform, anxiously waiting for her son to arrive on the first train from Kyiv to Kherson since Russia’s invasion engulfed the entire country. “I left home in a hurry because I was worried that the platform would be
KHERSON — As Maksym Nehrov sat in the back of a vehicle, tied up, with a bag over his head, he overheard the Russians talking and he knew at once where he was headed. They’d hunted him all over Kherson, kicking down doors and tearing through the apartments of his
Ukraine's recapture of the southern city of Kherson came as a happy surprise for exiled local journalist Kseniya Keleberda. "When Ukrainian forces first entered Kherson, we cried and smiled at the same time," she told the Kyiv Independent. Survivors of the eight-month-long Russian occupation immediately began celebrating at the central
KHERSON – When liberation came, many Kherson residents could barely believe the ordeal was over. Kherson was the only regional capital that Russians managed to capture, back in the first days of the full-scale invasion. A brutal occupation then ensued, with many residents being suppressed, robbed, abducted, tortured or killed. In
Ukrainian troops entered Kherson on Nov. 11, two days after Russia declared its retreat. Kherson, a city with a pre-war population of nearly 300,000 people, was the only regional capital sacked by Russia. Kherson residents held large-scale protests in March and April, demanding that Russian troops leave the city.
Key developments on Nov. 11: * Prosecutors: Bodies of civilians found in liberated parts of Kherson Oblast * Ukraine returns 45 POWs from Russian captivity * Ukraine building a wall at border with Belarus * Germany to send Ukraine additional 1 billion euros for cyber defense, documenting war crimes. “Today is a historic day.
The Russian defeat in Kherson Oblast was almost inevitable — but it happened sooner than many expected. The Nov. 9 announcement on Russia’s “uneasy decision” to leave Kherson, voiced by General Sergei Surovikin, has drawn the line under a months-long Ukrainian effort to undermine the Russian presence on Dnipro’s
Russia's gradual retreat reached a sudden climax on Nov. 9, when Moscow announced the withdrawal of its forces from the right bank of the Dnipro River, including the city of Kherson. Upon the recommendation of Sergei Surovikin, commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the
MYKOLAIV OBLAST — The low November sun slips in and out of the clouds near the regional border between Kherson and Mykolaiv. The last of the autumn leaves, the color of rust and flame, blow across the barren field as a handful of Ukrainian soldiers climb a small tree and go
As Ukrainians push toward occupied Kherson, the Russian occupiers on Oct. 18 said they would move up to 60,000 Ukrainian civilians to occupied parts of Ukraine or Russia. The occupation authorities called it an “evacuation,” saying that Ukrainian forces are likely to attack the city. The Russians have already
Ukrainian forces are gaining ground in Kherson Oblast. They are liberating villages and pushing towards the western bank of the Dnipro River, to squeeze the Russian forces against it. The Russian lines in the region are collapsing as their position west of the river gets less tenable by the day.
As signs that Ukraine had launched its long-awaited counteroffensive to liberate Russian-occupied Kherson began to emerge on Aug. 29, the Ukrainian government once again called on the remaining residents in occupied Kherson Oblast to evacuate. The Ukrainian military launched its counteroffensive in “many directions” in the south, Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson
The combat effectiveness of Russian forces in Ukraine’s southern Kherson Oblast will be noticeably affected by Ukrainian strikes on the bridges and crossing points there, military analysts said. With multiple recent strikes against three main bridges across the Dnipro, Ukraine’s largest river, Russian forces in Kherson Oblast were
Ukraine said it’s coming to liberate Kherson and Russia listened. Large Russian forces have been streaming into southern Ukraine over the past several weeks, centered around Kherson Oblast, where Ukraine is expected to be conducting a counter-offensive, per President Volodymyr Zelensky’s order to liberate the south. Analysts estimate
The third phase of Russia's war on Ukraine is coming. The first, the Kremlin's brazen blitzkrieg in late February that culminated in the Battle of Kyiv, failed. The months-long Battle of Donbas in Ukraine’s east making up the second phase has gotten bogged down, with Russia having barely enough
Editor's Note: The names of some of the people in this story who live under Russian occupation have been changed due to security reasons. One morning in early March, Iryna, 33, was frantically going through her closet looking for comfortable shoes. She knew she would have to walk to her
Over the past several months Russia’s focus on capturing Sievierodonetsk has forced it to pull assets and attention from other positions of attack, giving Ukraine opportunities for tactical counterattacks. Successful Ukrainian offensives have been observed in Kharkiv Oblast as of early May and in Kherson Oblast and the city
Editor’s Note: The Kyiv Independent used false names for all sources who spoke from Kherson Oblast for this story, for the sake of security. Life is getting worse in the city of Kherson, which has been occupied by Russian forces for nearly a month. The near-total absence of critical
Oleh Baturin, a journalist for the Novy Den, a newspaper in Ukraine’s southern Kherson Oblast, was kidnapped by the Russian military on March 12. Baturin lives in Kakhovka, a city of 35,000 people 90 kilometers to the west from the regional capital Kherson. For many years he has
