Flights from occupied Kherson: ‘it really is like Orwell’s 1984’

Kherson was Russia’s first major spoils of war, but perhaps not for long: if the Ukrainian reports are correct, the front line is creeping closer to the southern port city every day. But the villages that have been liberated in recent weeks are “90 percent” destroyed, says the Ukrainian governor of the Kherson region. It also makes the population longing for liberation fear a ‘second Mariupol’, the complete destruction of the coastal city after weeks of fighting. The residents are faced with the choice: leave or not?

Ukrainians who want to get away have roughly the choice of two routes: via Crimea and Russia to Georgia or Latvia. Or along the front, to Zaporizhzhya or Kryvy Rih. It is not known exactly how many have left, it is estimated that more than half of the 1 million inhabitants of the occupied region have already left the area.

The most dangerous but most affordable route is via Vasylivka to Zaporizhzhya. There you have to pass the Russian troops, through ‘no man’s land’, to the free Ukraine.

Anatoli left Kherson by car on July 19 with his wife and two daughters (17 and 12). Already in the first days of the war, his company was looted by Russian soldiers. He sold cars and his dealership was taken over by the Russians. Moments later, the occupiers drove through the city in those same cars, with painted white letters ‘Z’ on the sides. Anatoli shared photos of the cars in his salon and later on the street, and of his office where all the windows were blown out and everything smashed to pieces inside.

„A parallel world has arisen in Kherson, as in Orwells 1984,” says Anatoly. With his family, he joined Vasylivka as the 426th in line for the transition. “There is garbage everywhere along the road. You can’t get off the road because there are mines there, so everyone has to relieve themselves there.” According to Ukrainian media, several people have already died in that row, especially the elderly who succumbed to the heat. Civilians have also been shot.

Also read: “Give us more weapons and we’ll get the job done,” it sounds from the trenches in Ukraine

Car papers confiscated

They had to wait for five days. When they finally got to the first checkpoint, their passports and car papers were taken for verification. They got the passports back, but not the car papers, says Anatoli. “When I asked about it, they said they did.” His family was threatened. “‘Now you must go, otherwise we will shoot!'” At the last moment they were allowed to go to Zaporizhzhya. When Anatoli drove away, “the Russians began an attack.” His wife and daughters wept. Moments later, he saw the Ukrainian flag, “I looked at the clock, 10:40 PM.” An hour after he thought it would be his last, he was in free Ukraine. “Everything got better from then on. I think now they just wanted to scare us.”

Nadiia Paladichuk (17) comes from a village south of Kherson, Hola Prystan on the Dnieper. “We heard explosions every day. You can even hear an impact in Mikolayiv there, she says. . “It is becoming more and more dangerous in Kherson as the Ukrainian army comes to save the city. It makes the Russians quite angry, they are becoming more and more rude”, says Paladichuk. She decided to leave. Her mother had enough money for one ticket on a bus to Europe. That cost $440. Nadiia was allowed to go and traveled with two male friends aged 22 and 25. Upon arrival in Crimea, the men were removed from the bus and interrogated for six hours by Russian security services. In the end, the whole bus was allowed to pass. Via the Crimea, past Moscow and Latvia, she traveled to Poland in four days.

The second route is to the south: Alexandra Zima (21) was called at the end of June by a friend that he would be driving his car to Crimea at 4 am that night.

We had to show our gratitude for the ‘liberation’

Alexandra Zima fled from Kherson

The first Russian checkpoint was at the Antonivsky Bridge, she says. Their passports were checked there, their phones. “We gave them some cigarettes, then we were allowed to continue,” says Alexandra. “After that it became very scary, we saw destroyed buildings, burned-out military equipment. It felt like this was the end of everything.” Seventeen checkpoints followed along the way, where Russians and Chechens (“who talk with a very heavy accent”) wanted to check their electronics and papers again and again. They were interrogated at the border. “They wanted to know everything, who my relatives were, whether I know people in the army. I understood that it is the [geheime dienst] FSB was.”

While Alexandra was waiting, she saw two Ukrainian boys being beaten up by soldiers. A Ukrainian flag was found in the phone of one of them. “The Russians tried to lure us out of the tent. Then we had to say we were so grateful that they set us free,” says Alexandra. After about six hours she was allowed to drive on. In total she drove in a week to Georgia and on to Turkey, where she took a plane to Germany, where she is now housed as a refugee.

Those who do not leave Kherson must take cover. The port city north of Crimea and on the Dnieper River was taken immediately after the start of the war. Since then, daily reports of looting, intimidation, repression have appeared. Also be about 600 arrests and reported disappearances, such as that of Mayor Ihor Kolychaev, who the end of June was put in a van and has not been heard from since.

A flyer is circulated on social media with advice, including setting up an air-raid shelter, purchasing a power bank, enough water and food. “We have food and drink for a week,” says resident Bogdan (45). He lives near the center with his teenage son. “There is no bomb shelter in our area, they are all occupied by the Russians. They are afraid of being killed by missiles.”

Farmers Market

The residents of Kherson really only go out during the day and only when absolutely necessary – for example to buy food at the farmers’ market. That is the only place where affordable food is in abundance because the harvest cannot be exported, residents say.

In the city, you can be stopped by Russian soldiers, after which your phone and body can be checked for patriotic symbols and tattoos. “My son panics when he sees those vehicles with the Z symbol,” Bogdan explains via a messaging app. He himself did not have to undress for the occupier, but he says he saw the process on the street.

„Russia is here forever!” is on billboards in the occupied Ukrainian city. Below the words is a photo of a blond girl in a field of white flowers and the Russian flag. “These posters are everywhere now,” Bogdan says.