The city of Kherson, which was liberated two months ago by the Ukrainian army, is now subjected to daily Russian bombardment, including on Christmas days. A local resident told HotNews.ro what it’s like to live in a city where an average of more than 70 attacks take place every day.

Since the liberation of Kherson, innocent civilians die almost every day, from among those who did not have the opportunity to leave the city or, in principle, did not want to. Even on Christmas Eve, ten people were killed there in one day.

One of the city’s residents told HotNews.ro what suffering local residents experience every day due to Russian missiles. He told us that he stayed in Kherson only to help his parents who cannot leave the city. For security reasons, he asked that his identity be protected and that he be introduced to the public only as “Ivan”.

When we were preparing to record this interview, you told me that there was another attack at the same moment and that you still needed time so that we could talk. How often do such explosions happen in Kherson?

On average, there are about 70-80 explosions per day in Kherson. For example, there were 71 attacks on Saturday. As a result, ten people died and about 60 people were injured directly in the radius of the city.

As for the entire Kherson region, 16 people died in the part controlled by Ukraine. And that’s just in 24 hours.

In the previous day, there were about 60 attacks, five people were killed, and about 30 were injured. This trend continues throughout December.

In your opinion, what is the purpose of these attacks – provocation or the intention to return territories recently won by Ukraine?

This is a clear challenge, because the shelling takes place directly in neighborhoods with residential blocks, where there are private houses, near humanitarian centers.

On Saturday, the city market and supermarket were attacked. In Kherson, this is quite difficult, because there are few shops left, and the markets operate only at 10% capacity. The Russian Federation specifically attacks those places where there are many people.

“About 80% of the population left the city”

Photo from Kherson on Christmas Eve. PHOTO: Local Khersonets

Under such conditions, how many people remain in Kherson? It is hard to imagine how one can live in such conditions.

Many people left the city. I personally left Kherson at the beginning of the war and returned here when it was liberated by Ukraine.

During this entire period, I think about 80% of the local population left the city. Thus, if earlier there were about 300,000 inhabitants, now only 50,000 remain. Those left with nowhere to go and the elderly.

Indeed, it is very difficult to live here. In the first two weeks after the liberation of the city by Ukraine, there was no electricity, heat, or gas in the city. Now, utility workers have restored these conditions to some extent, but not in all districts of Kherson.

Now we have light, heat, the city is gasified, in those sectors where it was possible. However, very often after the attacks, electricity goes out and all communications disappear.

Why did you return to the city and why did you decide to stay?

Here are my parents. I stayed here to help them with the groceries. I stay only because they have nowhere to go.

Can we say that in this way Russia is taking revenge for its failure when it lost control over Kherson?

Russia has the same goals in Kherson as in the whole country: to destroy Ukraine as a state, to destroy Ukrainians as an ethnic group.

I will tell you what I noticed when I returned to Kherson: they stole the city, took everything they could. The Russians broke into apartments, took home appliances, stole local residents’ cars, peasants’ agricultural machinery, medical equipment from hospitals, looted museums, parks, and even removed monuments that were the city’s cultural attractions.

They stole everything that was precious here, and what they couldn’t get, they destroyed. In the first period after the liberation, all the equipment for communal and other needs of the city was brought here from other districts.

Russia is not an aggressor country, it is a country of robbers. Russian soldiers were just looting.

Would the population that remained in the city, perhaps a part of it, accept the idea of ​​compromises with Russia to end these terrible living conditions?

The position of every Ukrainian, every person living on the territory of Ukraine, is firm: there cannot be any compromises and concessions from Russia. I know this in Kherson, including Crimea, which is also part of the territory of Ukraine.

And I hope that next year we will bring it back. In general, thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, we will restore all our territories and return home.

Kherson Region is divided into two halves by the Dnipro River. The part around Kherson is completely freed. The other side, next to the Crimean peninsula, remains occupied by the Russian Federation, from where fascist Russian troops attack peaceful settlements.

There are no military personnel in the city of Kherson, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are outside the city and are attacking the enemy there. With the return of these territories to Ukraine, the Russian bombing will stop.

How are the residents of the city living because of these Russian attacks? Has it reached a food crisis?

To date, several shops and supermarkets have already resumed work. In addition, every day humanitarian aid arrives in our city, trucks with everything necessary, which are provided by partners from abroad, as well as from the neighboring region.

Thus, there is no humanitarian crisis, people can get what they need, including food, clothing and medicine, from humanitarian centers. As for finding work, it’s difficult as local authorities urge people to evacuate to safer areas.

You said that Ukraine is preparing to return the Crimea as well, when should we expect Ukraine’s victory at least in this area? I ask you, including in the context of the statement about new aid from the United States of America during President Zelensky’s visit to Washington?

Yes, we know the president was in the US, I think there were some deals there. Thus, already next year we are waiting for arms deliveries. Thanks to the support of the United States, as well as the civilized countries of Europe, I believe that in the spring of next year we will go to the borders with Crimea, and by the summer we will liberate the entire territory of Ukraine and we will go to the borders that were in 1991 (no – the year of the declaration independence of Ukraine).

• Watch the latest LIVE events from the 306th day of the war in Ukraine on HotNews.ro