relief. She looks with tearful eyes at her seven-year-old boy, who is dressed in the colors of Ukraine and pauses at a soldier: “I love them, they are cool!”, unties the boy from under his hood . Valentina and her son Danya came out of town armed with provisions, such as apples and homemade fruit preserves, to offer to “their” soldiers. Although the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson was officially announced a few days earlier, the city is still inaccessible and without a network.
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“I’m very happy that they came back. You can’t imagine how difficult it was,” she says, crying. Still no water, mains and electricity for a week. And the school for the little ones? “The Russians offered us 10,000 rubles (160 euros, editor’s note) so that he could complete the school program in Moscow.” Valentina refused, but a friend of hers gave in, and Valentina describes it: “Her son had to sing the Russian anthem every morning”.
Valentina and her son Danya arrived in Kherson on Sunday, November 13, 2022, armed with provisions to offer to the soldiers of Kyiv. (GILLES GALLINARO / RADIO FRANCE)
Maksym, her husband, tells about Russian filtering and surveillance. “Our mobile phones, our messaging systems were systematically checked! There were long lines in my neighborhood. Even to get diapers for our baby, we stood at the roadblock for four or five hours…” And above all, he addresses searches and torture. “Every second young person in my environment has experienced this: being falsely accused of possessing weapons. The torture was terrible. Burns on the genitals, electric shocks, electric shocks on the ears… The secret services will have work to do.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also accused Russian forces of committing “atrocities” in Kherson. “The bodies of those killed are being found: those of civilians and soldiers. In the Kherson region, the Russian army committed the same atrocities as in other regions of our country that it managed to penetrate,” Kyiv announced on Sunday evening. According to the president, 400 Russian “war crimes” had been documented, without specifying whether they only affected the Kherson region.
A hot soup for Ukrainian soldiers. At the checkpoint, at the entrance to the city #Kherson free, residents come to distribute food. #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/VmNI0MGu0X
— Gilles Gallinaro (@GallinaroG) November 13, 2022
And then suddenly it’s four women’s turn and they make grand gestures. They also bring borscht (a beet soup) from Kherson to all the soldiers. The checkpoint looks like a canteen. And the soldiers accept a bowl of steaming soup. Like a touch of celebration, of liberation, even if all barriers have not yet been lifted. Neither does the Russian threat, only on the other side of the Dnieper.
Valentina confirms: “We are afraid that they will shoot Kherson. You cannot just walk away.” Therefore, Valentina, Maksym and their children want to leave Kherson as soon as possible and live in Odessa for a while to find shelter.
War in Ukraine: Kherson is liberated, residents come to thank the army. Report by Agathe Mahuet and Gilles Gallinaro
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