KYIV (Dagbladet): The last few days I have been talking to friends from my hometown, Kherson, on the phone. It seems that the Russian occupation forces are still trying to establish the so-called “Kherson People’s Republic”, which they want to include in the city and surrounding areas. A friend (49) says many Russian soldiers have now installed themselves around the city, both in dormitories, hospitals and other places where there is electricity, water and space to sleep. Probably, says a friend, this is part of the Russian propaganda: The soldiers will be “voters” who will “vote” for the Kherson region to no longer be part of Ukraine.
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When I ask if they think the Russians will succeed, a friend says that the question is not whether it will work or not. The question is – this has already happened once before in Ukraine, in the east, with Donetsk and Luhansk. Therefore, it is better to prepare for the worst, which will be when the Russians start trying to recruit Kherson residents to vote the way the Russians want.
My main question to my Kherson friends is whether they want to continue living in the city, or whether they want to go to safer regions of Ukraine. A friend says that they will stay in the city, at least until their grandson is born, which is soon. After the birth, the family will look into the situation, before deciding whether to evacuate in early May. Rumors are now circulating that the Russians will surround and close the Kherson area for all travel, both in and out of, somewhere between 1 and 10 May. Then it is also feared that the Russians will close the area to all possible forms of communication. Until more is clear, my friend is following the situation closely – and planting vegetables.
Another friend has taken his wife and daughter to the neighboring region, Mykolajiv. The taxi ride cost $ 1,000, for a ride of around 100 kilometers. An insane sum: Before the war, the same trip would have cost a maximum of one-tenth, ie 100 dollars. It would have cost even less by bus. To get out of Kherson, you have to go through somewhere between six and eight checkpoints, which the Russians have set up. The Russians went through my friend and family’s passports, while the taxi driver only had to open the trunk for inspection once.
ON THE RUN: Ukrainian families who have fled from Kherson to the port city of Odesa are at a dolphin show in the city. Photo: Reuters / NTB
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My friend says that life in Mykolajiv is a completely different and easier feeling. Now they know that it is Ukrainians and the Ukrainian army that are around them. He says it is as if mountains have been removed from his shoulders, and that it is much easier to breathe. He and his family are now renting an apartment in the Mykolajiv region for two months. They aim to return to Kherson when the city is liberated and the Russian occupiers are gone.
Another friend, the father of two sons aged seven and 12, drove his youngest son to the Moldova border, where he will from now on live with his mother. The eldest son wanted to join his father back in Kherson. My friend says that Kherson has become a heavy and depressing city. It reminds him of the 90’s, when it was only possible to get homemade alcohol and Soviet-imported cigarettes. Much, including sausages, are imported from Russian-controlled Crimea and into Kherson now.
In the early days, when the Russians took control of Kherson, the inhabitants of the streets protested. But when the Russians threatened the protesters with weapons, the protests ended. The citizens’ new way of demonstrating is to boycott the Russian-imported goods and food.
WAS SCREEN AWAY: In the first weeks of the Russian opposition, the people of Kherson showed that they did not want the Russians in the city. But then the protesters were threatened with death by the Russians, and people no longer dared to protest openly. Now they use other methods, writes Denys Martynov. Photo: Reuters / NTB
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Another friend, a father of two, has also decided to stay in Kherson. He says he is confident that the city will continue to be Ukrainian, and that the Ukrainian army will soon expel the Russians from Kherson. And from all over Ukraine, too.
A number of other friends have also decided to stay in Kherson, and there is also some form of resistance. Someone must be left there, they say: The city must have citizens who remember that Kherson is Ukrainian. And who knows that the people of Ukraine remember Kherson.
Kherson prepares for the worst, but hopes for the best.
The diary is translated by Line Fransson.
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