Kherson defends himself from bombs while fighting Moscow's collaborators and hoaxes

A Russian proverb says that “war is war, but food is always on time.” It is one o'clock in the afternoon in Kherson and, for the first time all day, the Kremlin's shells, located on the occupied southern bank of the mouth of the Dnieper, have stopped firing on the city, less than a kilometer away, in the opposite bank liberated by Ukraine. The very few people you see on the street—only 50,000 of its 300,000 inhabitants remain here—come out of their holes and appear in dribs and drabs under the pergolas of the bus stops. When passing through open spaces, such as the city's main park, they run to avoid sniper fire. Not a single building is intact and almost all businesses are closed. Kherson is a hell where skin is always at stake. Therefore, everyone who can afford it has already left.

During Moscow's current offensive – which began in December taking advantage of the lack of Ukrainian ammunition and the fatigue of its troops – the Russians maintain their main objective of advancing in eastern Ukraine, according to leading analysts. After the Ukrainian withdrawal from Adviivka (Donetsk) on February 17, the Kremlin took advantage of the momentum to gradually gain ground towards the city of Kharkiv and try to take over the entire Donetsk province. At the same time, they have multiplied their incursions in the south, in the Robotine area (Zaporiyia) and in Kherson, to prevent kyiv from concentrating its forces in the eastern part of the country. For weeks now, the Russians have been incessantly bombing this city and the neighboring towns further east. Added to the artillery and drone attacks are repeated landing attempts aboard speedboats that, so far, Ukraine has managed to repel.

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The war on the Eastern Front and drone attack in Zaporizhzhia

A rescue team works in a residential complex in Zaporizhzhia hit by a drone attack. Photo: Reuters | Video: Reuters

But the men and women of the 124th Ukrainian Territorial Defense Brigade, stationed in this area, do not only fight the aggressor in the territory he illegally occupies. Also in Kherson itself. After the large-scale invasion two years ago, the city was taken over by Russia with the acquiescence of its neighbors and politicians, and collaboration with the Russians remains a problem. Workers and skilled professionals have fled the bombs to other cities in Ukraine. Those left here mostly belong to disadvantaged classes or are elderly people with nowhere to go, niches especially vulnerable to the enemy's disinformation campaigns. It is the Lancet-type drones, artillery and mortar projectiles that destroy Kherson, but the Kremlin's propaganda is another weapon that seeks to confront its inhabitants with the military who try to defend them.

Preventing such attempts at manipulation and keeping the population loyal to kyiv is the task of First Lieutenant Oleksander Martinenko, head of the Central Office of Military Cooperation. His department, created in imitation of NATO countries, he says, is responsible for relations between the Ukrainian army and civil society in the city. This officer gives some examples of how the enemy tries to influence the minds of the neighbors. “A few weeks ago they released information warning of a major attack and asking the population to take to the streets showing white flags as a sign of surrender,” he explains. “Many scared people called us and we had to explain to them that everything was a lie, misinformation.”

A Browning-type anti-aircraft machine gun with which the Ukrainian army combats Russian drones in Kherson, at the beginning of March. Manuel Altozano

Another source of poisoning, according to Martinenko, is Telegram, the most widespread messaging network in Ukraine. “The Russian military duplicates our official communication channels and continually spreads hoaxes about our administration or lies about the course of the war, generating alarm among many neighbors who believe that we sent these false messages,” he adds. Religion is also used to distort the population. “One day we received information that an individual was spreading pro-Russian messages in a church in Chornobaivka [on the outskirts] and we reported him to the authorities so that they could control the situation,” says the soldier. “He now works for us and helps us discover other collaborators from Russia.” When the threat is especially serious, his office reports directly to the SBU, the Ukrainian security service. According to the maps of the front, updated daily from open sources, the 127th Intelligence Brigade of the Russian army works on the other side of the river.

Explain who is the aggressor and who is the attacked

Intelligence, counterintelligence and the fight against propaganda. These are the tasks entrusted to Martinenko's department. Explain to a population besieged and tired of bombings who is the aggressor and the attacked in this hybrid war, creating links between military and civilians. “We listen to people's needs and transfer them to the departments that can help them. We also take care of their evacuation if their homes have been affected, of damage to infrastructure, of the elderly who live alone... We organize cultural and social activities between neighbors and soldiers, we dismantle Russian imperialist myths... " In short, they try to generate trust in Ukrainian institutions and at the same time create information networks among the inhabitants of a city in which Moscow, whose troops are just a few hundred meters away, continues to fish through its media and fake apparatus

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while bombing.

The recent history of Kherson and his political class partly explains this volubility towards the invader. The capital was occupied by the Russians between March 2, 2022 and November 11 of that year. During that brief period, Moscow appointed Volodímir Saldo as head of the regional administration, former mayor of the city for three terms before the war (between 2002 and 2012) and former deputy of the Party of Regions, of former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, dismissed after the Maidan revolution in 2014. As mayor, the occupation authorities appointed former councilor Alexander Kobets, a former KGB agent in Soviet times who joined the SBU (the Ukrainian intelligence service) after the country's independence and later showed his support to the enemy. Both had social support in Kherson, although, during those months, there were also demonstrations and protests in favor of the legitimate Government of kyiv.

Interior of an office building attacked with rockets in the city of Kherson.Manuel Altozano

Despite the enormous danger looming over citizens due to continuous shelling, the situation in Kherson has improved in recent weeks, according to Serhii, one of the officers of the 124th Ukrainian brigade. Troops loyal to kyiv have managed to push the first Russian lines a few kilometers to the south. Artillery fire continues to arrive every day, but not mortar fire, which no longer reaches the center of the city, but stays on the river bank. “It is a great advance if you think that, in recent months, Kherson has received an average of 100 attacks of this type per day,” explains the soldier. “Now, the Russians' tactic is to send several men with boats on assaults that only aim to discover our positions. As soon as we shoot to defend ourselves, they send us a drone.”

The destruction of the Nova Kajovka dam, 60 kilometers upstream, in July 2023 further complicated the lives of its inhabitants, who had to face the flooding of a large part of the city. The Ukrainian government and its Western allies assume that the dam collapse was the work of the Kremlin.

While waiting for the trolleybus at the Iliushi Kulika street stop alongside about twenty sad-looking people, Tatiana, a 58-year-old nurse, tells of the harshness of daily life in this besieged capital. “My children went to other cities when the war started, but I can't do it because I can't lose my job,” she says. She says that her hospital, where she goes, suffers continuous attacks, which has forced her to move all of her facilities, including the patient beds, to the basements. “It is very hard not to be able to see the light of day. “Both for the sick and for the healthcare workers,” she continues. “Then when you go out, there are no shops, there are no cafes, there is nothing. You lock yourself at home alone,” she adds. “Except for civil servants and the military, no one has a job because there are hardly any companies that hire,” she laments. “The few of us who keep it have gotten used to going out as little as possible and living underground.”

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