Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian soldiers of committing war crimes and killing civilians in Kherson, which was retaken from Ukraine last week.
“Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and soldiers were found,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Sunday, without specifying the locations where the bodies were discovered.
“The Russian army left the same atrocity behind as in other regions of the country it invaded,” he said.
It was not immediately possible to verify Zelenskyy’s claims. Russia denies that its troops intentionally target civilians.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, mass graves have been found in several locations in Ukraine, including the bodies of civilians with evidence of torture discovered in the north-eastern Kharkiv region and in Bucha near the capital Kyiv. Ukraine has accused Russian troops of committing the crimes.
A United Nations commission said in October that war crimes had been committed in Ukraine and that Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human rights abuses in the first weeks of the war.
Ukrainians in Kherson expressed a deep sense of relief following the withdrawal of Russian forces on Friday after months of occupation.
The region was one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly annexed in September, a move that Kyiv has called illegal and Western countries have denounced.
The Russians retreated on Friday, and residents expressed relief that the soldiers had left [AFP]
Some residents accused the Russians of laying mines and looting – even stealing animals from a zoo – before pulling out.
“God will punish them. All of them. For everything they did,” said 47-year-old Svitlana Vilna.
No water, electricity
Ukrainian troops arrived in the southern city of Kherson after Russia abandoned the regional capital, which fell shortly after the February 24 invasion.
The withdrawal marked the third significant Russian retreat of the war and followed a major Ukrainian counteroffensive that had recaptured parts of the east and south.
Most homes in the Ukrainian city are still without electricity and water, according to regional officials, and artillery barrages continued to reverberate across the city.
“We are happy now, but we are all afraid of the bombing from the left bank,” said Yana Smyrnova, a 35-year-old singer who was in the city’s main square, referring to Russian cannons on the east side of the Dnieper.
Many residents – some draped in Ukrainian flags – lined up to grab food and use Starlink satellite internet to connect with relatives.
“I need to get in touch with my family,” Klavdia Mych, a retired teacher, told AFP.
“We’ve been without water for a week,” added the 69-year-old. “And they say that everything is mined. It’s very scary.”
The governor of the Kherson region, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said the authorities decided to maintain a curfew from 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT) to 8:00 (06:00 GMT) and people for security reasons to leave or prohibit entry into the city.
“The enemy has mined the entire critical infrastructure,” Yanushevich told Ukrainian television. “We try to meet within a few days [then] Open the city,” he said.
Zelenskyi also warned residents of Kherson about the presence of Russian mines. “I ask you not to forget that the situation in the Kherson region remains very dangerous,” he said.
Residents gathered to use the Starlink satellite system for their smartphones. Ukrainian authorities are working to bring water and electricity back to the city, with the first trains expected to run this week [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]
minimize contact
Officials reported some early progress in restoring normalcy to the city, whose pre-war population was about 290,000 people.
Presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram that a cellphone connection was already working in the city center, while the head of Ukraine’s state railways said train services to Kherson are expected to resume this week.
Residents said the Russians had gradually withdrawn over the past two weeks, but their final retreat only became clear when the first Ukrainian troops entered the city of Kherson on Thursday.
“It was a gradual thing,” said Alexii Sandakov, 44, a videographer. “First their special police went. Then the ordinary police and their administration. Then you saw fewer soldiers in the supermarkets and then their military vehicles driving away.”
Many residents interviewed by Portal said they had tried to minimize their contacts with the Russians and were aware of people being arrested and ill-treated for showing any expression of Ukrainian patriotism.
Sandakov said Russian troops had looted the homes of Ukrainian soldiers who left the city before the takeover and were examining the bodies of young men passing through checkpoints for tattoos belonging to Ukrainian nationalist groups.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said it had recaptured 179 settlements and 4,500 square kilometers (1,700 sq mi) along the Dnieper since the start of the week.
Retaking the city opens Ukraine’s gateway to the entire Kherson region, with access to the Black Sea to the west and the Sea of Azov to the east.