Interviewed by AFP, several residents of this important city in southern Ukraine recounted the months of Russian occupation and for some, the acts of resistance they put in place to show their rejection of the Russian attempt to annex these territories.
They also say today that they are afraid that the pro-Russian sympathizers of yesterday are still in the city, hidden since the arrival of the Ukrainians at the end of the week.
“There are so many people I still see every day who, I know, denounced us” to the Russians, lambastes Olga to AFP, who only wishes to give her first name for security reasons.
“These bastards haven’t all left”, assures this 47-year-old woman as the Russian army, under pressure for several weeks by a Ukrainian counter-offensive, withdrew last week from the west bank of the Dnieper river. .
– “Very scared” –
Since the departure of the Russians and the arrival of soldiers from kyiv on Friday, the inhabitants of Kherson have been gathering in a square in the city center, tears of joy on their cheeks, blue and yellow Ukrainian flags on their shoulders.
They swap tales of months of Russian occupation while queuing to get some signal for their phone from the only available Starlink station in town.
Among the crowd, 19-year-old Volodymyr Timor told AFP how he and his friends spent months observing the movements of Russian soldiers in the streets of Kherson.
“You observe carefully then you come home and you write everything down, before sending everything. Absolutely everything: telephones, papers, clothes”, explains this young man who wanted to become a musician before the war.
“We reported everything: where their equipment and ammunition storage places were, where they slept, where they went to drink,” adds Timor.
The information sent to the Ukrainian army allowed troops in kyiv to effectively target Russian positions during a counter-offensive launched in September.
“Believe me, I was very scared,” the tall young man said of being arrested and possibly killed.
– Limit exchanges –
Iryna Bovkoune and Natalia Smyrnova also resisted in their own way.
The two women collected water from the Dnieper River which runs along Kherson to flush the toilets or wash the floor, and thus limit their consumption of drinking water, a rare commodity.
“Some of us waited four or five months before buying food brought back by the Russians,” said Bovkoune, 55.
Russia introduced the ruble as a daily currency several months ago, while allowing residents to use the Ukrainian hryvnias they had left.
But that changed after Moscow annexed the Kherson region in late September.
According to Mmes Bovkoune and Smyrnova, the Russians were bringing back products from annexed Crimea that were up to ten times more expensive than foods sold before the war.
Some residents did everything to avoid any contact with Russian products and currency.
“I can’t describe how much I hated touching those roubles,” said Ms. Smyrnova, a former accountant.
– “I spoke Ukrainian” –
Lada Koloskova, a local radio journalist, explains that she used another weapon to deal with the Russian occupation: by speaking Ukrainian on a daily basis.
“I spoke Ukrainian. My friends spoke Ukrainian among themselves, like everyone else. Even the Russian-speaking inhabitants got into it,” says the 47-year-old woman.
As a way to show his independence and ensure that infiltrated Russians cannot penetrate his private life.
The Ukrainian security services have been limiting exits from Kherson since Friday in an attempt to get their hands on possible collaborators who have not had time to leave and have dressed as civilians to escape kyiv soldiers.
According to images on social media, they could have been blocked as the main bridge to cross from the right bank to the left bank of the Dnieper River was destroyed last week during the withdrawal of the Russian army.
Military analysts suspect Russia of wanting to set up sleeper cells and sabotage units in Kherson.
“It’s dangerous to talk in the street,” says Olga, a resident.
Same story with Lada Koloskova. “When the Russians arrived on March 1, we quickly understood that they intended to stay for a long time,” she explains.
“But we would never have imagined that they would stay so long,” she says.
