Large groups of people gathered this morning in the central freedom square in the city. Many of them carry the Ukrainian flag on their shoulders, singing and yelling at the Russians. Iuliia Mendel, the former press officer of President Zelensky and herself from Kherson, shared images of the protest on Twitter. “The city of Kherson asked me to share this news. They want the whole world to know that they are Ukrainian and that they are proud of it,” she wrote.
At the risk of their lives, the Ukrainians revolt against the Russians. The usually well-informed Nexta, a Belarusian independent news agency that closely monitors the situation in Ukraine, reports that the Russian army has fired warning shots into the air to disperse the group. They shared the following images on Twitter, which shows how the protesters face the army, after which a number of loud bangs can be heard. It has not been confirmed that the explosions are actually shots.
Russian troops captured the strategically important city of Kherson on Wednesday, Mayor Igor Kolykhaev confirmed. “There is no more Ukrainian army here,” Kolykhaev told a New York Times correspondent. Kherson was the first major regional capital to be completely seized by the Russians since they began attacking their neighboring country last week. Dozens of people were killed and injured in the fierce fighting for the city. Kherson has 285,000 inhabitants and is located on the Dnieper River, near the Black Sea.