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Gallery|Russia-Ukraine war

A month since Russian retreat, life in Kherson is far from normal

As artillery continues to batter recently retaken southern Ukrainian city, local officials try to clear the mines left behind by Russian troops.

Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
Ukrainian children play at an abandoned checkpoint in Kherson. [Bernat Armangue/AP Photo]
Published On 11 Dec 202211 Dec 2022
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Sunday marks one month since Russian forces retreated from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and its vicinity after an eight-month occupation.

But life in the city – which had a pre-war population of some 300,000 people – is still very far from normal.

The departing Russian troops left behind all sorts of ugly surprises, including mines, while their artillery continues to batter the city from new, dug-in positions across the Dnieper River, according to Ukrainian officials. The regional administration said on Saturday that shelling over the past month has killed 41 people, including a child, and 96 were hospitalised.

On Friday alone, according to the local affiliate of public broadcaster Suspilne, Russian forces shelled the region 68 times with mortars, artillery, tank and rocket fire.

Painstaking efforts are ongoing to establish a sense of normalcy, like clearing the mines left behind by the Russians, in spite of the tough wintertime weather.

“The difficulties are very simple: it’s the weather conditions,” one military demining squad member, who goes by the nom de guerre of Tekhnik, told The Associated Press news agency. He said some of their equipment simply did not work in the freezing conditions “because the soil is frozen like concrete”.

The deployment of additional teams could help ease the heavy workload, he said. “To give you an idea, during the month of our work, we found and removed several tonnes of mines,” said Tekhnik, adding that they focused only on about 10 square kilometres (about 4 square miles).

The general state of disrepair of weather-beaten roads helped the outgoing Russians disguise their deadly traps: Potholes, some covered with soil, provided a convenient place to lay mines. Sometimes, the Russian troops cut into the asphalt to make holes were there were none.

In Kherson’s Beryslavskyi district, a main road was blocked off with a sign reading “Mines Ahead” to reroute passersby to a smaller road. In fact, it was the side road that was mined, and cost the lives of some military deminers.

A few weeks later, four police officers were also killed there, including the police chief from the northern city of Chernihiv, who had come down to help Kherson regain its footing.

Regional officials say some 80 percent of Kherson’s pre-war population fled after the Russian forces moved in, days after their invasion began on February 24. With some 60,000-70,000 residents remaining, the city now feels like a ghost town. Those who remain mostly keep indoors because they are worried about going out onto the streets.

Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
Antonivsky Bridge, the main crossing point over the Dnieper River in Kherson, was destroyed by Russian troops in early November as they withdrew from the southern city. [Bernat Armangue/AP Photo]
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Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
A family in the village of Pravdyne, in the Kherson region, look through their possessions at their house that was occupied by Russian forces. Demining squads go from door to door to ensure it is safe for owners or previous residents to return. Experts say a single house can take up to three days to be cleared. One crew identified a hand grenade in one house, stuffed into a washing machine. The pin was placed in such a way that opening the detergent tray would set off an explosion. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
An office chair stands in the corridor of a basement in a building used, according to a war crime prosecutor, by Russian forces as a place of torture in Kherson. The city's main police station, where detainees were reportedly tortured, is packed with explosives. When demining squads tried to work their way in, part of the building exploded - so they've shelved the project for now. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
Anti-tank mines are seen in the field near Pravdyne. Kherson is an agricultural region that produces crops as diverse as wheat, tomatoes and watermelon - a regional symbol. The fields are so heavily mined that about 30 percent of arable land in the region is unlikely to be planted in the spring, according to deminers. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
Kherson city residents collect water from the Dnieper. The electricity still comes and goes, although water is largely connected, and indoor heating has only very recently been restored - and only to about 70-80 percent of the city - after Russian forces last month blew up a giant central heating station that served much of Kherson. [Bernat Armangue/AP Photo]
Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
Relatives of Elizaveta, 94, transport her on a cargo cart to an evacuation train in Kherson. In the last month, a total of 5,500 people have taken such trains out, and work crews have cleared 190km (115 miles) of road, Suspilne reported. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
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Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
Mykola helps his neighbour to repair a roof after their houses were destroyed during the fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the recently retaken town of Arhanhelske. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
Tamila Pyhyda cries during the exhumation of her husband, Serhii Pyhyda, who was killed by Russian forces, in the recently retaken town of Vysokopillya. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
A house burns after a Russian attack in Kherson. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
City responders carry the body of Natalia Kristenko, 62, in Kherson. [Bernat Armangue/ AP Photo]
Russia Ukraine War Kherson's Struggle
A man rides a motorcycle in front of houses destroyed during the fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the town of Arhanhelske. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]


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