Faces of the liberation of Kherson

Serhiy Serheyev he had never touched a weapon in his life when Russian troops began their invasion of Ukraine. However, he did not hesitate for a moment to apply for the protection of his country. “The 24th in February they crossed the border and started shelling Kherson airport. A friend called me at five in the morning to tell me that the war had started and, after I had bought groceries and gas on the run, at half past eleven I already had a Kalashnikov in my hands. They gave me five minutes of practice which consisted of learning how to load, cock, and fire an AK-47. They immediately sent me to the front,” he says.

“I was lucky to survive so far,” admits Serheev with a loud sigh of relief. And not for less. At the age of 25, he participated in an unsuccessful operation to protect bridges on the Dnieper River. “The Russians were much more professional, and we did our best, we had to retreat,” says this young man with gentle features and an easy smile, who was nicknamed Setite.

Kherson was the first major Ukrainian city to fall into the hands of the Russian army, the only regional capital captured in this war year, and one of the cities that remained occupied the longest until liberation. Serheyev also participated in that operation, which ended on November 11. “People came out to celebrate, but I wasn’t allowed to see my parents until later, because there was a fear of Russian collaborators“, to remember.

It was feared that they would fight as Ukrainian partisans during the nearly ten months of occupation. How did they do it, for example? Bohdan Gordievskiy and his wife Anastasia, 20 and 21 years, respectively. They met at a military school and that southern city was their first destination as soldiers. They arrived only on February 24, 2022. «We were on the bus with other colleagues and all of our cell phones were ringing. In the distance we saw the Kherson area burning. It was chaos,” he recalls.

hidden in houses

“They separated us after a few days. And when the Russians occupied the city, we hid in the residents’ homes, where we were ordered to behave like civilians,” she adds. In this way, the young couple Collected data on the movement of enemy troops and weapons which they counted on, key to launching the expected counterattack that liberated the city. “After two months, Ukrainian cell phones stopped working and we had to buy Russian cards for which they asked for all kinds of documents. That’s how they controlled us and using our data confirmed that we voted yes in the annexation referendum – says Bohdan. Now, after passing the acid test, the couple is thinking about starting a family.

Unlike what happened with the liberation of the municipalities surrounding Kyiv, the victory at Kherson was bittersweet. Because the bridges collapsed and the city was split in half: the Russians are still entrenched on the east bank of the Dnieper, who turned the river into a border actuallywhile the Ukrainian banner flies in the western part, where the largest part of the city is located.

Both sides were temporarily at a standstill, a situation that constant artillery bombardment failed to change. What it does is leave an unstoppable trail of the dead. The last six were registered this Tuesday.

Therefore, Kherson is a ghost town where only a few businesses remain open and where only elderly residents hesitate to seek refuge elsewhere. However, the military claims morale is high.

At 58 and after fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan four decades ago, Sgt Mykola Zozulia should think about retirement. But he volunteered the day after the invasion and his goal is final victory. “It will be ours, it’s just a matter of time”he said, sitting on the bed of a trench that the Ukrainians are digging in the background, where they fear that the Russians will try to take the city again.

long live freedom

“Anyone who can handle a weapon should do so. And if not, you can help by digging trenches or in many other ways. But people cannot stop if they want to continue living in freedom,” snaps Zozulia. The problem is that, as shown by the high number of casualties among the Russian ranks that increase the number of inexperienced mobilized, the danger lies in sending unprepared people to their deaths.

It is also happening on the Ukrainian side. This was confirmed in the Lilac Park in Kherson, where it is military chaplain Maksim Bervinov Raise a small memorial these days to remember about thirty comrades who died on March 1 last year when they tried to stop the advance of the occupiers in this small wood. They had little experience and They faced professional soldiers armed only with rifles and molotov cocktails“, he recounts. Even today, with all the help the West is promising Ukraine, Bervinov says his brigade needs more artillery shells to defend the city.

Shells falling a few hundred meters away are proof that, despite the army’s optimism, nothing is won forever. Bervinov got used to it and kneels only when he hears someone’s whistle very close, u an inadvertent impersonation of U.S. Cavalry Lt. Col. Bill Kilgorein the movie Apocalypse today. He is a religious man who has swapped his habit for a camouflage uniform and has been battle-hardened by a thousand battles since the 2014 occupation of Crimea, but he admits that the stagnation on the battlefield makes him fear that Vladimir Putin will end up using a tactical nuke to secure victory. . “We are few if we compare ourselves to the Russians, but our spirit is stronger”console yourself.

66 days as a prisoner of the Russians

Oleksandar Fediunin He knows well all the points of the Geneva Convention that refer to the treatment of prisoners of war. Because the Russians skipped a few with him. “I was arrested on March 3 in Kherson when I pretended to be another civilian in the occupied city,” this Ukrainian soldier recalls. “At first they didn’t know who I was, but they found out from the data on my mobile phone that I was an army chief. They locked me in the basement from the headquarters of the government,” he continues.

Restrained, the Russians began questioning Fediunin. At first with a little tact, then with fists. And, in the end, they tried in every way to extract information from him: «They wanted to know where my comrades were hiding, how many soldiers were left in the city, stuff like that. They kept my phone on so they could see the messages I received. He was isolated in a cell for ten days that he will never forget. Because they tortured him, but those he heard screaming while their legs were being broken suffered worse. “There were also civilians who protested against the occupation,” he says.

Fediunin was valuable as a bargaining chip, so the Russians transferred him to Sevastopol, in the occupied Crimea. “They treated us well there. The place was comfortable, they gave us three meals a day, and we could also play chess”, describes the officer. What I could not have known at the time was that it was all part of a theater designed for the propaganda of the Russian press. “Even the person in charge of human rights from Russia came to confirm that we received adequate treatment,” adds Fediunin, who is entrusted with the management of Ukrainian prisoners.

Before him, the Russians released a volunteer from Kherson who was tasked by the army to find his family to inform them that he was still alive. “That’s what bothered me the most. To think that they believed he had died,” he explains. It was his turn on May 8: he was exchanged for other Russian soldiers in Zaporje. Then another odyssey began. “I was in a rehab center for ten days confirm that I have not changed sidesthat I will not betray my country,” he recalls.

The experience did not change his view of the Russians. «There are good people and bad people. Those who leave me without food in the basement for four days and those who worry about it. Those who attack countries and kill children and those who oppose it”, he analyzed.

And he admits that the same thing can happen among Ukrainians. “I have not seen how we treat Russian prisoners here. They tell me that the rules are followed, but I understand that, depending on what some have done, they are certainly not welcome – he skates.