Kherson

What did the special corner of the "new" Elena Kostyuchenko saw with her own eyes

The text is published in Novaya Gazeta on March 26 with censorship reductions. On March 30, the text was deleted at the request of Roskomnadzor and the Prosecutor General. Below - the text uncensored .

How the city was taken

Kherson was occupied by the Russian army on March 3. First, the city was taken to the ring: the surrounding villages and the Chernobaevka airfield were busy. Then the Russian military entered the city.

This is the only regional center of Ukraine for the month of the war, which is taken and held by the Russian army.

How did Kherson take? “Stupidity or betrayal, possibly, is both,” says Andrei Gordeev, a former governor of the Kherson region.

“So we have four defense lines.” The first is the isthmus between the Kherson region and the Crimea, it should have been completely mined. And by the way, they told me that a week before the attack he was cleared by some dick. Next are border guards, but the task of the border guards is not to join the battle, but to see the fact of aggression, give a signal and move away, move away and so on. Then our irrigation system is already coming. The irrigation system - it was designed in the Soviet Union by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Agriculture. The structure itself - as it were, the shape of the channel - does not provide for its intersection of any mode of transport. In any case, this is a waste of movement. That is, the logic is this: bridges explode, they all stop, and our artillery is just heating them, the rest. Then the third line of defense is the Dnieper River itself. Until the last, the Dnieper is held, the Antonovsky bridge, if that - it explodes, and Kherson, as it were, is generally outside the hostilities, there is no bridge, we only guard the water line. Dick him who will cross is the Dnieper. And the last line of defense is the Kakhovsky bridgehead. There is an evacuation of the new Kakhovka, people are evicted there, and the Kakhovsky bridgehead is being held. Reduts, caponiers are made there. All this is allocated for a day. These days we had to stop them at the entrance. It didn't work out.

The current governor Gennady Laguta, according to the colleagues, on the first day of the war put the keys on the table to the mayor with the words: “I am not participating in this,” and left the region. Together with him - on the first day of the war - the police leadership, prosecutors, courts left, a little later, the SBU employees were evacuated.

For the Antonovsky bridge over the Dnieper, the battles went for two days. They tried to undermine the bridge twice, they aimed at it “U”. At another bridge of the Kherson region - a genetic car - the engineer of a separate battalion sailor Vitaly Skakun, who personally carried out a detachment, gave his life.

Zelensky awarded him the title of Hero of Ukraine.

The column of Russian tanks was looking for bypass paths - and, of course, found.

Teroboron - an armed civilian unit to protect the public order of strategic objects, an analogue of the People’s Militia - was organized in the Kherson region back in 2016. According to Andrei Gordeev, there were no tasks before the unit, and after he was replaced by a military commissar, many military pensioners signed up in Terboron - to receive a salary with a pension.

- The war began, but we have not a single checkpoint, not a single one! Everyone wants to do something, no one knows what to do. Nobody controls anyone. I go to this businessman Terborne, I say: "Dima, what is it?" He did not even have Kherson's cards on the table. Understand? Volunteers resorted to during the day, stood near the military registration and enlistment office, did not know what to do. Nobody went to them. At 7 o’clock in the evening they brought a bus, and they were taken to the village to the Dneprynskoye, where the Terborne base was supposed to be.

At 7 in the morning of the same day there was a meeting on the defense of the region. The brigade commander Ishchenko says: “Guys, war, I need to take a truck from a warehouse to your base.” Those say: "Everything is fine, wait, now it will be." He calls at 8 in the morning - where is my truck? They say - wait, now it will be. He called Yakimenko, the deputy governor of defense. He calls at 9 in the morning, calls at 10 in the morning - wait. And at 11 in the morning, Yakimenko says to him: “Sorry, turn to the mayor, because I’m generally far away, in evacuation.” That is, this is while he promised transport, he simply ran away with the administration together.

At 11 in the morning, the brigade commander already understands that he does not have a car. And he accidentally finds out that the car with weapons in Alyosha is traveling-catching up with the 59th brigade, which was defeated there. He says: "I stop it and throw off from it 660 machines with ammunition." And that's it, she went. It’s good that at least it took it, because the car did not reach, it was cheating on the dam. And from this car, 400 machines are issued on the first day to volunteers in the Dneprynsky. There is a battle on the Antonovsky bridge. We must take the bridge under guard - like, everything there. And they walked about three kilometers on foot, this Antonovsky bridge. They came there, there was already night there, a dull night. Aviation healed along them, they saw the guts, and how they gave everything! Somewhere half of the machine guns were returned, half, so, disappeared. Like people. Well, in the sense, they lay down somewhere to the bottom, they were sick.

It was the night from the 24th to the 25th.

As a result, he has 220 machines left. At Ishchenko. I brought them about 50 flies (RPG -18 “Fly” - Approx.), There was immediately a bus, immersed with these guys, such a bunch. We came, opened the trunk, there are “flies”. "Boys, can you have it?" The brigade commander says: "Yes, take it." And in short, we gave half of the “flies” to them. They are in cellophane. And there, there are on the frames [Video with the dead fighters of Terborne]: they are so in cellophane and lie.

And their battalion commander makes them in buses with cocktails, with these and flies to a lilac park. To prevent the coming of the Russians from the Kamyshan. If people were a little more prepared, then this tragedy would not have happened. The Russians were counting on blitzkrings, and, perhaps, with resistance they would have scattered. But people were just meat. For the idea. Only in a lilac park 36 children died. They were shot from machine guns. Our priest Kherson buried 67 children from Terobors, unidentified, himself. They are just like dogs, 20 centimeters are sprinkled like clay, without coffins, without nothing! Here the father took a picture of them all, made a numbering, made a closed chat in a telegram. We will win, he says, then we will get them all.

* * *

Kherson journalist Konstantin Ryzhenko says:

- The deputy head of the regional council simply published such types of funny publications that everything would be fine. And people were in full confidence that we have a territorial defense, that the military has some kind of tricky plan, that we will now lure them on some key approaches, throw Molotov cocktails, then our military will look out because of some corner, shoot everyone with artillery and somewhere else with machine guns will be kindly, who could survive. Well, such as if euphoria in people who were really not in war. I, too, to some extent believed in it, because I look at the experience of other cities. There they dragged tires, bags with on foot, there, somehow hold on. It can be seen that they resist. I think so: "Class, and we too!" And in the end, it turned out that only 200 people were gathered in Teroboron, on the very first day they were taken out somewhere, even the enemy did not cross the bridge, they gave them one machine for five people, the fiction of cartridges, and everyone said: “Sit, wait.” Nothing happened. They give them some physical exercises there, almost push-ups and running. Then they sat there for a day, these military arrived, they say: "Listen, let's go home." Then two days later they said: "Return."

One minibus arrived. 20 people fit. They said to everyone else: "All, go home."

It was an unofficial folk militia. They said to people: “Go home”, people understood, heard it as “we are handing over the city” and decided that to hell with you, and not to surrender the city. Here's a kind of type, such as self-organized. And died.

City

In the regional council, standing on Freedom Square, there was a “military commandant’s office” of the city. The names of the military commandant were not reported to the Khersonites. In local telegram channels, a order of the commandant’s hour and a ban on rallies that are not signed by anyone walks by anyone. Civil power in the city is personified by the mayor Igor Kolykhaev, in fact he acts as the governor. I met the mayor in the City Council. “Not to the interview. We are under occupation, you must understand. The city of Kherson is in Ukrainian jurisdiction. My number is number one - so that the city lives. No requirements were received on their part. For my part - so that weapons and military equipment would not go through the city so that people, activists who live in the city do not steal. ” The City Council belonging to the Ukrainian authorities and the regional council engaged in the Russians are located on the same street - Central, Ushakov. Between them - 500 meters.

The Kherson Regional Council accepted the appeal in which he announced that the KhNR - the Kherson People’s Republic by the type of LPR and the DPR would not arise. "Deputies of the Kherson Regional Council of the VIII convocation never recognize attempts to create a" people's republic "in the Kherson region and chill part of Ukraine." The deputy regional council Yuri Sobolevsky explained that since the regional council building was occupied by the Russian military, they voted in the zoom, but only 50 people out of 64. 44 voted against the INR.

Above the abandoned buildings of the SBU and the police are Russian flags.

The commandant hour from 20 to 6.

Two -hour queues for ATMs.

Trolleybuses go for free.

There is no gasoline and gas in the city, but there was a diesel fuel.

On the third day of occupation in the Kherson region, Russian television channels were included. Ukrainian television is preserved in those who are connected to the antenna directly, without a prefix. The city media actually stopped working. The city takes information from telegram channels.

Kherson lives without a police. The police management left Kherson on the first day of the war, an ordinary police officer was offered to change into civilian clothes and evacuated independently.

The responsibilities of the police are performed by municipal protection and self -organized volunteers.

Arthur (the name changed), the head of the defense of one of the districts, says:

- We installed the Zello program to all - this is a radio station that operates via mobile Internet. We made a common chat - our chats are not secret, open - we do not hide that we help people, carry public order. We are organized with reference to the place of residence. Often people even sit and observe at home - they see who has a threat, but who does not. Immediately associated with the nearest people in the patrol. Depending on the event, we pull ourselves and decide on the spot. If this is looting, most often we simply carry out educational work and tie it to the pillar for a while. We tie with tape. We try to stop thefts, looting, household issues. Today, for example, they also went in case: it turns out, they began to row in the same house, raised the whole house on their ears. This morning we came to them, held a preventive conversation.

The looting, which appeared in the first two days after the entrance of the Russians into the city, has now practically disappeared. They managed to plunder the largest shopping center “Factory” (it fell under the shelling), a Citrus technique store, several grocery. Greenline and Selpo supermarkets, in order not to become victims of looters, opened their doors themselves.

Fighted cars stand on the streets - there is no one to remove them.

The meter hole in house 2 on Tarla Street is sealed with a metal patch. Nearby is the turned out of the balcony pocket. The glass densely strewn the ground from all sides of the house. Houses on Tarla Street took over the first artista entering the city of the army.

Alexandra Pavlovna Kaznacheva just received a humanitarian - ten loans to the house. On each loaf there is a piece of paper with an apartment number, distribute to the residents. On the table, flowers are placed, dropped from window sills with an explosion. The flowers managed to reanimate. “Well, okay, I understand when Hitler, there they have fascists, foreigners, well, in general, this is completely different compared ... I personally cannot choose a single word to call this person not even what the devil, I do not know. I have no words, no. Take to cut off all the joy of life! " - says Aleksanra Pavlovna and cries in a fist. She gives herself to tears no more than a minute, and there are no tears.

- And they began to bomb, you know, before lunch. Because I stood here opposite the countertop. No one expected, and even more so! I don’t know what bullet I flew into the bathroom. I sat when I hear, the glass poured.

Well, it came to us, into the second house, and a projectile flew into the fourth house. And all the first and second floors hooked strongly with an explosive wave.

I already hear - quietly. I opened the door, went out, look - my flowers lie on the floor, the glasses lie here and rained there. Two such huge explosions, it turned out that it came to us. When I left, the glasses were not in my apartment anywhere.

And in the sixth apartment - opposite mine - the grandmother was sitting in the kitchen, this saved her. This grandmother began to scream scary. There, in general, it was hysterical ... And the door of the entrance was closed, there the door is so powerful, powerful that it did not dump it. We could not even pull out my grandmother through the door. We pulled it through the balcony, through the hole where there was a balcony. They called an ambulance. She was there in the blood, fixed. Probably, the fragments flew into it, cut off. They asked: "There is nobody in the house?" She said - well, apparently, in shock, 82 years old: "There is a lot of anyone." Well, a lot that is a lot. And on the second day - a call.

I pick up the phone, the commander of her grandson, who is fighting. He says: "Your neighbor is looking for his wife." I say: “So there was information that she went to the village to her parents. There was one grandmother. ” So she told him. But it turns out she lay there, she covered her plates, she ... all this fell on her! Here you see the block? The door is balcony and this is a large window. This whole mass covered her. The refrigerators fell, cabinets, all this fell and leaned it. So there even if they had already found it right away, then she had a very dissected face. Probably she was immediately killed.

Tanya Ermolaeva, 29 years old. There was such a nobody! And the wounded grandmother is Valentina Vasilievna Khmelnitskaya, she is 82 years old. Her grandson Sasha is called, he is now near Lugansk. That's their whole family.

Blockade

The city is actually in a blockade. The Russian military controls all departments from the city.

The most acute problem is medicine. There are no heart, antihypertensive drugs in pharmacies. L-thyroxine disappeared, which is necessary for people who do not function the thyroid gland-it is now impossible to buy throughout Ukraine. They were able to deliver insulin to the city with “smuggled channels” - it was distributed to hospitals. On pharmacies there is a list of missing drugs-it has 40-50 positions. Basically, these are drugs that are taken constantly.

There are no drugs for chemotherapy.

There are no psychotropic drugs.

The chief physician of the Kherson city hospital named after Karabelesh Alla Pavlovna Malitskaya says:

- In each medical institution there is still a supply of drugs. We always try to have a 1-3-month norm in stock. The acutely-and-scrap group of drugs does not stand on the agenda, but there is an outpatient group-due to the fact that a number of pharmacies were closed, due to the fact that the pharmacies were plundered, due to the fact that there was a panic, people began to choose medicines for six months or more. The big problem with the oncological groups of drugs, that is, those ordered from the central warehouses, from federal pharmacies-they are mainly in Kyiv, maybe in Dnepropetrovsk, some part in Nikolaev. But due to the fact that we now have no logistics, we were torn off. As for insulins, for two to three weeks we will provide for those in need, and then we think what will happen next. Every day it reduces this interval. We are worried that over time, we will end with leaving, that is, diapers, pawnshots. Because we had a small supply, moreover, we increased tender procedures, but we did not buy it, because we were delivered as necessary. Now there will be a problem with the consumables for dialysis, and I know that many medical centers of Ukraine has switched to two -time dialysis. I used to be at least three times. And this is the quality of life of people, and life itself in the end. We have dialysis consumables for three weeks.

“We have six clinics at the hospital - three children and three adults,” says Leonid Timofeevich Kraftye, head physician of the Tropy hospital. - But to prescribe a prescription to get a medicine is a problem. Pharmacy network - retail - it is almost empty. Cream, ointment, vitamins.

“Leonid Timofeevich talks about conversations with the occupation authorities. “On the first day, a Russian captain came from us with two machine gunners and a sick fighter, and the first condition was to remove the flag. We said that we would not remove it. He said: “I allow you to leave it like that until the evening, I will come in the evening so that there is no.” And he is still hanging. This captain conducted a training manual. Do you know what training manual? Well, that we are liberators, we will free you, then. Everything will be fine here. I say to them: “Come on, take your patient already, we examined him, pneumonia.” Then he arrived, as he introduced himself, the head of the medical service of the southern group of troops ... Well, a doctor. “We need to refuel oxygen.” I say you cannot refuel oxygen with us. Left. The next day I arrived again: it is necessary to place the staff of the military hospital. I say: “Sorry, no.” The next day no one arrived. ”

- The occupation authorities offered humanitarian assistance. They came to the hospital and asked, says Alla Pavlovna. “I said we don’t need.” There is an article by the Criminal Code that entails the punishment for cooperation with the occupation forces. We should not cooperate with them. And if there were no law, I would still not agree to cooperate with them. I really hope that we will not need to wait for someone to help, that help from our own will be timely and sufficient. Yesterday they wrapped the GUMKONVA, what explains this? People go to rallies, the whole city. Our employee has disappeared a son. He is a football fan, shouted screamers about Putin. Andrey Solovy, 23 years old. It has disappeared, she has been silent for several days, there is no connection with him. They say that he was taken from the house on March 11. His mother cannot go to work, lies. He does not communicate with anyone, afraid. I am a gastroenterologist. Until 2014, I went to Moscow, to St. Petersburg at a conference. I talked there with doctors. After Crimea, I could no longer ride. My father died in Crimea in 2015, and in order to facilitate the financial burden of my mother, I ordered a monument for dad here in Kherson. Then I could not bring him to Russia, three times. The Ukrainian customs missed me with the monument, and Russia demanded either I paid a fee of four thousand euros for it, or something else. This is inhuman humiliation. Father lies there in the Crimea. I have already buried my mother here.

* * *

Product prices rose about two times, three times for eggs. On the shelves of large supermarkets there were "festive", expensive products - gingerbread gingerbread, Hamon, Bree, frozen salmon. There is no cereal, pasta, bread, sugar, only announcements remained from them - "no more than 1 kg in one hand." In the markets you can find everything, but more expensive. A week ago, the wholesale base under the village of Big Kopani resumed work, and vegetables began to be imported into the city. Private bakeries are baking bread - the price of a loaf reaches 25 hryvnias (86 rubles).

The Chernobaevskaya poultry farm located in the village of Vostochny, as a result of hostilities, was left without electricity, water and feed. All bird number - 3 million chickens - were distributed for free. Chickens were transported through checkpoints, unloaded at the 90th colony and transported to private cars to the city. They say that in the refrigerator each Kherson was visited by the Chernobaeva chicken.

It takes two to three hours to search for food for a day.

At the station every day they are gathering for humanitarian aid. Russian assistance - Ukrainian is not allowed into the city. Today, the queue is sluggish - they have already announced that there would be no humanities, but thirty people remained standing "just in case." We stood from 6 in the morning.

A very young guy is suitable, something quietly says to one of the women.

- I, young man, stand because I need it! Why did you come?

- The Russians have blocked yesterday your Russians with humanitarian help! - says the guy. - She was driving to Kherson, they said: leave, we have our own humanitarian. They themselves organize a humanitarian catastrophe, and then - oh, what we are well done, we are saviors, we give out to poor people food. We are well done, we save you from our own!

- You do not promote here! - the woman crawls in a torn vest.

- -the car arrived, standing. The photographer drove, took a picture that they give help, and how many people are worth helping. They want to show photos that we were waiting for the Russians. And we did not wait for the Russians, we were waiting for ours!

“Where can I get food?” - says the woman.

- Look for the city, there are our Ukrainian volunteers! - says the guy. - I myself do not remember the addresses ...

- So you come with addresses!

- Yes, just an ass is burning from you! - the guy turns away. - How to talk to you?

“Thank you for your help, arrived and distribute food for free,” the woman says in a torn vest. - We have shops either closed or empty. And everything is in the market. The 4th military planned to be distributed on Freedom Square. They began to distribute - the rally of our Ukrainians rose. When I got - they already set sail, several cans of broken stews were lying on the square, its dogs were licked. I have not seen who was throwing at whom.

- Such a young boy with older people in this tone.

- The Russian officer talked with us, and quite culturally, calmly. He promised buses. He said that we are not fighting, we are fighting with the nationalists. We do not need your Kherson, he was both Ukrainian and will remain. We are fighting with nationalists to overthrow your power, restore order.

- For 30 years there is not a single owner, only thieves.

- Yes, thank God that they came. That's how much Putin is there?

- 22 years.

- There will be order with these. The Americans of the factory are developing all sorts of Covids. In Kherson, how many laboratories, they destroy us. Covid do you think where, from there? This is from us. 30 laboratories in Ukraine.

- From Ujan, Covid came!

- Yes, my neighbor worked in the laboratory, in Kherson, so she was blown up, and her legs turned!

For some time, everyone is fiercely arguing whether coronavirus can be the same biological weapon, which, according to Russian television, is developing biolaboratories in Ukraine.

- Ukraine is the second Switzerland. Only so that the owner is, not thieves.

- If these are not overthrown, then thieves will remain, as they were.

- So we stood near the anniversary, the Russian military issued canned food, of course, there was a queue. About a thousand people were. They say: your mayor does not allow permission to give out products to people. What to do?

- But the red cross does not give, because people began to impudent, stand three times in the line, and then they are taken to the bazaar.

- Our people are starving!

- That's who taught Molotov cocktails to throw in them? Do not provoke! Do not touch them - and they will not touch. It is unlikely to be worse. And so you can live.

The dead

When they talk about the dead, the city administration indicates that there are “approximately three hundred bodies” of the dead in the city. The head of the Kherson Regional Bureau Natalya Nikolaevna Filenko says that the figure can be considered true, but in the area of ​​the dead - much more. There are simply no summary data on the dead. The order of the Ministry of Health of March 9 simplified the issuance of bodies for burial in war. Now the bodies can be issued with a medical certificate of death that any doctor can issue, without referring to a forensic examination. In the conditions of occupation and military operations, the bodies are often buried independently, “in the field”.

“No more than ten people were brought from the Antonov bridge, and how many people were killed there. We have one body from the Lilac Park, but we have neither the total number of dead, nor names-there the priest and the locals simply gathered them, and all were dug up somewhere. The wife identified one of them, and now she reburied - with a name.

Now you know how they are at the same time? People come here. They see the deceased, they bring things. Here, our orderlies lay in the coffin, relatives say goodbye ... and the body is sent by car. Relatives do not go to the cemetery. Why? Because there are checkpoints. Gravemen send their photos of graves later. On March 16, the municipal service machine took the dead, and they were fired from weapons. So the guys who drove these dead, they lay in the cuvettes, waiting while it was ... Cars came without glasses, without nothing. Then these glasses were stuck. They even see that mourning transport, and then manage to fire all this thing. Well, one day was not buried. Then again they began to slowly carry.

Some bodies are very damaged, destroyed. A lot of charred ones. Two -thirds of our bodies go unidentified. They ask me: "Send a photo to identify." I always ask: "Mom, do not show wives!" I send these photos only to men, and then I ask you to immediately delete them.

Two -thirds - without names. Those first days that were then battles, they were smashed by some of the columns, with sleepy ones - these were night blows to military units. This is a lot of charred ones. We had the shelling of the Antonovsky bridge, and reached Antonovka. And my mother brought, gathered in a blanket, said: this is my son. And when the guys went to the autopsy, there were fragments from two bodies. Therefore, you see, talk about something specifically now-well, how?

We take DNA samples. But we do not have a DNA laboratory in the city. The closest in Nikolaev, we are cut off.

The bodies of the Russians, thank God, did not come to us.

Here's how to get the bodies? People call, indicate the place: "Here is our son." I say: “I understand everything, but I have no transport to send people there, and I can’t risk people when shelling goes there. I can’t help your son in any way if you have already been told that he is dead there, you know? I can’t risk living people. ” Only a week later they brought when shelling slightly subsided. Get out from under the tank. And they decompose. They lie in our bags, do you understand? People say: "Well, this is a refrigerator." The refrigerator is not freezing. This is not freezers. Put a piece of meat in a regular refrigerator. When will it go bad? And this is the body.

We have a new building, there is just something still cold there. And we partially use the territory of this ~~ z ~~ danimi for storing bodies. Therefore, also on the floors, good that it is cold. Concrete floor. And so our guys, the orderlies, spread their blankets, tarpaulin, everything that was. And there ... But they are still in bags.

Here we do not have enough of these black packages. We turned to the hospitals, we helped us - we dropped a little who could. And then the communal service will highlight. We bury everyone in packages. Who can and who has money, they buy coffins, and while they are. And now the coffins are ending. Some come, the abundance, and the abundance-two or three shreds of different color.

The time is very terrible. All this is disgusting. I am very sorry for people. They are not to blame. Here we have one grandmother. Her boy died, from the Vinnitsa region. "Do not hide him!" We hold it, literally from the first days we have this boy. "You do not hide him, we will fly behind him." And she fools everyone! I say: “You know, no one will help the boy, and if you fold your head, who needs it? You think about the living, please. "

And all together this is a category - "persons who died from hostilities." There are also bullets, there are also mine-explosive ... Civil car was shot on the night of the 24th to 25th at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. The dead are a boy, he is three months old, his sister of 2015. And three adults-a woman of 1966, a man-1965, and another woman-born in 1995. They are all with one surname, family.

Hard. I communicate with the relatives of the dead and Zsushnikov and the peaceful ... Then I go to the shower and roar. In the evening, this is already a motorcycle - to cry, but in the morning - again to work. Well, what to do? We must do this work.

It would be better if everyone left. This is how they came, so they would quietly leave at night. But as I understand it, this is not a finish yet.

The regional council

At the side entrance of the regional council, a technician with white z on the sides, machine -gun nests from concrete blocks.

Relaxed military. Hands lie on kalasha. The masks are lowered.

A woman is approaching the military.

- Do you give humanitarian aid?

- Today will not be.

- There will be no today, but when will it be?

- Nobody knows. You come every day. At nine in the morning, at ten. And ask. This is the best option.

A girl with a pigtail is suitable behind her.

- I ask about medicines. We just really need l-thyroxin. In our house, two people accept regularly, they have a thyroid gland removed, you know? As if, if they do not accept, they will die. Here with who can I talk about this topic?

“Now I will ask, maybe someone knows something,” the fighter replies and goes to speak by the walkie-talkie.

- Thanks a lot!

Grandma with a large bag is trampled and speaks to the phone. The fighter offers her a chair, she sits down and cockroach: “ They were waiting, there was a sheet queue. I didn’t get that. What was distributed there? Same. The men stood, some men. How many days have you settled? How do we now? And the soldiers say - the mayor, the mayor forbade them! The mayor forbade the humanitarian aid to distribute! That we do not need! What kind of mayor are you?! How are you mayor? Get up, feed people! Why will you not feed people? "

- Is it such a good mayor or sho? - asks the fighter.

- Then what for is he needed? - the grandmother rages.

Fighters nod, laugh.

- And you live far, right?

- Yes, I'm in the southern village. This is on foot.

- Come tomorrow.

- The humanitarian was not delivered today?

-Nope. And yesterday they distributed. Near Antonovka or on the island. I definitely can't say.

- Are you here for a long time? - the military girl asks. - Don't know. To be honest, I don't think it will be worse. I think so.

- Worse than now?

- It won't, I think.

- Smart people live, right? - says the grandmother.

“There are few bad people here,” the fighter replies. -Therefore, everything is so quiet-peaceful.

“They don’t let people out in Mariupol, so everything is so,” the second fighter continues.

“Well, Mariupol is hiding behind civilians,” says the grandmother.

The woman suits quietly, asks how to sign up for Crimea. On departure from Kherson to Crimea is recorded in the building of the regional administration.

“It will be, there, once every two or three days, the column goes with accompaniment,” the military advises her. - That is, you can be taken if you do not have your own car. If on your car, then there is another procedure.

- Did I give you icons? - asks the grandmother of the fighters.

- They did not give me. They already gave someone there. I don’t.

- Give you?

- Let's.

“There is worthy,” he extends a laminated icon with the Virgin and a baby with a sweat in his hand. - I still have an icon of the royal family. Our martyrs. Give you?

- Come on, we have one lover of this topic. Thank you.

“And this is my favorite icon - an indestructible wall.” And there is also a sovereign icon. This is a Russian icon, called "sovereign." When the royal family was tortured, the scepter accepted the Mother of God. She now leads all this. Well ... everything is by the will of God. Is it true?

- How else? - answers the fighter.

- And how do you feel like that? - the girl asks. - So you went to the city as it were, all the same, it is considered the occupation. How do you feel?

“I don't feel occupied,” the grandmother says.

- Calmly. Calmly. It is not felt that you are bad. But it is morally felt ... We do nothing wrong with anyone. If I did something bad, maybe it would have strained me.

- Well, you don’t care, when you were here, there, ZSU defended and you killed them there, it turns out.

- I did not kill anyone.

- How do you know?

- I feel inside that I did not kill.

“Girl, no one bother anyone here,” his partner says.

- Didn't you defend the city?

- Here everyone has already left for a long time. You still did not know that something would be, but they have already left. For a week.

“You have a beautiful city,” the fighter says to the girl. - But cold. I thought it was warm here for a long time.

- And already I saw dandelions bloom! - says the grandmother. - Nothing, now this week, otherwise we are from the boots - immediately to the sandals.

- Yes, now everything will work out. It is necessary to endure. Life will work out, everything will open. And no one touches you.

- And people are scouring in apartments, pick up.

- Yes? Do not believe what they say. Here you see in the city, what is there, who is there? You see, this is propaganda. Here is your looting. Not a single military will fit there. At first we did not touch them, then we began to disperse the looters. Simply, you see, it’s easier to write off us ... that all the troubles are from the Russians.

- When you were going to the army, you thought at all that you can be in another country, for example?

- Certainly.

- You have the Ministry of Defense. It is therefore defense that defends the country from strangers, as it were, and does not go to other countries.

-Girl, and you forgive, and you are not from Tel Aviv? - the grandmother asks.

The military laughs.

- No.

- Not from Jerusalem?

- I have no anyone in Israel! - The girl steps back.

-Yes, your medicine is hidden somewhere! At entrepreneurs. It’s just that they do not allow them, I think the local authorities open all these pharmacies. In any way, there are stocks there. You see that the mayor’s task is to configure against the Russians.

“So why isn't that?” Will not shock? - the grandmother asks.

“Well, officially, he is a mayor,” says the military. “You shake him.”

Abduction

Oleg Baturin is 43 years old. He is a journalist, works in the newspaper New Day. Specializes in investigations of corruption. He lives in Kakhovka - a town 80 kilometers from Kherson. Everyone knows in the city.

On March 12, he was kidnapped.

-I will not tell some things, because I am still in the occupied territories, understand me correctly. What I think it is possible to tell you - I will tell you.

Last Saturday, somewhere in the region of 12-13 pm from the unknown number was a call. It was my friend, Sergey Tsigipa, from the new Kakhovka. He is an ATO veteran, activist, blogger. I later realized that at the time of the call, he was already abducted. He said in a normal voice: “I need to urgently meet with you. Let me figure out how to get to Kakhovka, this is 12-15 kilometers, and we will meet there. Come on some simple, affordable location, for example, at a bus station. ”

Of course, one could suspect something was wrong, to avoid this meeting. I went without documents, without phones, that is, with me there was nothing but personal things - a scarf, gloves. It was five in the evening. Only I managed to look out, he was not there, there is only some kind of bead. I leave, and then well -trained people jump out of this bead. I managed to see that they were in body armor, it seems remotely for men in the Crimea, the equipment is clearly military. They began to shout: “Fall on the asphalt, on your knees,” they began to wring their hands very sharply, put on handcuffs, roll on asphalt, ask, “where is your documents, where is your phone.” They became very infuriated that I had nothing with me, they all checked very hard. At first I called them the first name that came to mind, they said - you are lying. After that, they threw me on the floor of this bead, put my legs on my back, my feet are hard and automatically on the back. My jacket was quite dense, it smoothed out.

They had closed faces. Only the eyes are open a little, but I managed to see it only out of the corner of my eye. I could only see them in fits and storage, because all the time when they talked to me, they forced me to bow low, putting on a hood or wrapping the tape on the hood very tight so that it could not fly away. I could not identify them, I did not see their faces. They spoke Russian, and it was clearly the Russians, it was obvious. There are no Ukrainian troops in the Kherson region, and our police are not, so who else could steal me.

I know our roads, where are the railway tracks, where are some turns, and according to my feelings they brought me to the city of New Kakhovka. I was taken to the building of the Novokakhovsky City Council. They began to interrogate me: the name, surname, date of birth, place of residence, place of work, here you are a journalist, why are you writing about ... I was asked about some nationalists if I know some local nationalists, about the rallies that took place in our region. After that, I was taken to the police building, not far from the city center, and I don’t want to talk about this either. I felt that some other detained people with me only when we were taken from the Council building to the police building. There was also an interrogation there, and there were also interrogated there. Then they chained me and others to the battery, and until the morning I sat there. They beat the machine guns with their feet and butt. They did not beat on the head, fortunately. On the legs, on the back, on the sides, but the jacket smoothed the blows. The legs were more painful. The handcuffs were very tightly tightened, I had very very swollen hands, and there were still scars. Constantly threatened with murder. On Sunday morning, it was probably the worst time. And when we were taken again, I thought - they are being taken to the field, shoot. I mentally said goodbye to my family.

On Sunday, I was brought to the building of the Kherson Regional Administration. I asked who interrogated me - can I ask you where I am, not in Kherson. They told me - yes, in Kherson. They were interested in the organizers of rallies everywhere, and people who conduct telegram channels were interested. I have not seen who I am talking to. My back and head were very low. They all the time followed this, during the interrogations my hands were shackled by handcuffs, then from behind, then in front. They watched when I tried to move, when my nose was combed out, they pulled me abruptly so that I would not dison.

After the next interrogation, they opened the window, and there at that time a rally took place on Freedom Square, and it was just grandiose, and I heard very clearly what happened there. I felt the confusion of those who interrogated me. They said: "We came to protect these people, and they go and shout, something is incomprehensible."

We were all interrogated in separate offices. There for the first time per day they allowed to go to the toilet. They gave me a small glass of water on Saturday evening, and on Sunday afternoon they also gave me a little water. After the interrogation, we were taken to some, as it seemed to me, the pre-trial detention center.

I was alone. In each cell there was a toilet and water, that is, it was possible to drink. A tap with a sink. But there was no toilet paper, no soap, no towel, no replaceable clothing, there was none of this, they slept on naked bunks. In the first few days it was very cold, because it was frost, especially at night, I froze. Then it became better, because the battery was a little bit, in recent days it was already much easier. The first time was given to eat on Monday afternoon, 350 grams - millen porridge with meat, then in the following days they gave one or two portions per day.

They constantly interrogated people there, interrogated me, it all happened at different times. I understand that for several days these insulators were replenished with new people, and constantly interrogated. I heard people beat. They were taken out and beaten in a separate room, and some were beaten directly in the cells. Some were beaten for several days in a row. I cannot judge, because I have not seen, I can only rely on what I heard. According to my feelings, they were wildly beaten, to half death. I really hope these guys will survive.

Everything that happened in the isolator was like some kind of intimidation. More or less professional interrogations were on the first and second day. And then all this was some kind of chaotic. They asked me when the day of victory, and that you are here in Ukraine, do not celebrate Victory Day. They asked when the Great Patriotic War began, when it ended, who fought with whom.

And on the eighth day in the morning they told me: "Collect things, we will take you home." They said: “Why do you go to rallies, why do you need it, why are you exciting the people, why do you need this nonsense, sitting calmly, we came to save you, and you are rebellious here.”

I'm with my family now. I feel pain. It hurts me because I love the Kherson region. I did not want such a fate to myself or my loved ones.

From the beginning of the occupation, statements have been received in the City Council about 44 missing people. Three women, one citizen of Spain. Five of the missing ones disappeared on Square of Freedom, where peaceful rallies are held against the occupation. The rest were stolen on the streets, on checkpoints, from apartments.

According to Kherson, kidnappers are actively looking for SBU employees, ATO veterans, activists, volunteers, and leading telegrams.

From the statements:

They captured three men from the village of Zmievka, Berislavsky district, who moved to the white “Ford Busik”, their women called many times on phones and a few hours later unknown people picked up the phone and said that your men were captured in some Russian headquarters. The son of one of the men and his comrade who went in search was also taken away, this happened on the segment of the track between the village of the Chervonny Lighthouse and Zmievka.

03/21/2022 Orcs came to our house, first starting to break the doors. Before that, they went into other entrances and searched for my husband there. When they came, my husband hid and they interrogated me with the child, then they phoned my husband and told me to go home. He came to him handcuffs and a hat on his eyes and took him in an unknown direction. The husband is in the mini -cypered wart (security - E.K.). There were 5 of them and 2 near the entrance.

We went home to Chaplin, reached Chernobaevka and disappeared. We are already looking for a month, we were in the Opel Astra car.

In the morning, the cadet’s mother called the phone and informed that the cadet had not returned from the rally.

From a rented apartment, the military of Russia took our children with bags on their heads. Near the house there were two jeeps, a minibus and Ural with a sign Z.

The son left the house with a friend, and went to look at the consequences of hostilities in our area. No one has seen them again since that day. The phone is turned off, did not get in touch.

People in masks, with weapons in their hands, took my younger brother. They took away in an unknown direction.

A man disappeared. She left Antonovka to the market, was without means of communication, at 12:00 the last time she contacted her family. She said she was in line and will return home soon. She was dressed in a puffy coat of steel color with fur, jeans and shoes with fur.

The sister and the guys with whom she rented an apartment disappeared. People in Russian form with the letter "z" and a car with the letter "h".

We went with our son for purchases, at the post of orcs something did not like something on the phone of his son, they took him and said that he would contact me later, but no one contacted me at the moment.

My dad and two brothers were driving home. We drove into Chernobaevka and disappeared.

On March 12, the Russian military broke into the apartment, where I live with my relative, and conducted an interrogation, intimidated and threatened with reprisal!

They searched for weapons, checked my involvement in the National Corps, Teroboreon, Armed Forces and other special forces, thought to identify my involvement in the organization of rallies, where I was only March 5, they thought that I was an administrator of the nationalist group. For the fact that I went to the rally on March 5, they threatened to cut off my leg or shoot it.

My brother disappeared. I beg, help. For night calls from scammers with a demand for ransom will drive crazy.

On March 5, at about 12-13: 00 Sasha and Zhenya and several more men stood in the center of the village. Russian soldiers at Tigrah arrived at them and began to check the phones. Sasha and Zhenya found some information and took them. When they took it, they said they would return. They took away Kherson along the field roads. Then they turned on their phones, and we began to write and call them. They answered the messages that they would let go and everything would be fine, then they picked up the phone once and also said that they would let go. They promised to let go. March 7, they stopped answering and no longer read messages.

A man disappeared, the military of the Russian Federation, black beads, put on a black bag on his head and took it out.

About 10 a.m. on 03/16/2022 the Russian military entered the house. After checking the tattoo (they were not) and the phone (the phone was locked several times during the audit, it really did not like the inspectors) Maxim was taken for further conversation. According to the neighbors, he was beaten on the way and, together with another man, was taken out in an unknown direction. They took it out, but where exactly it is impossible to find out.

There was a city of Kherson at a peaceful protest.

Father disappeared on Monday 03/21/22, went to the rally and did not return.

My husband was kidnapped on March 9. In the morning his acquaintances also disappeared (names - E.K.) They called their relatives on the phone and said that they were captured by Russian invaders.

The connection with them disappeared after the Russian block of post.

Phones periodically began to appear in connection, but when we call, the beeps are going, but they do not picked up the phone. Then not on the network at all. We began to write SMS to their phones, in response come "alive, well, will soon be at home." We do not know where they are and what is with them.

Several people returned. I managed to talk with them and establish the location of the "prison". This is the building of the pre-trial detention center and the children's distributor-3 Teploenergetikov Street, before the Russian troops occupied Kherson, the city authorities transported prisoners to the colony, the building was empty. Now he was occupied by the Russian military. The stolen ones equally describe the view from the window, the location and furnishings of the cameras. According to them, two foreigners are now in the prison - citizens of Spain and the Netherlands. A citizen of the Netherlands, according to other "prisoners", is sick and is at death.

Rally

Rallies against the occupation are held on Freedom Square. Every day, at noon.

The largest rallies are on Sundays.

People gathered across the road from the regional council, opposite the cinema Ukraine. 500 people, and the crowd continues to grow.

The Ukrainian flag is the main symbol. There are many flags. People hold them in their hands, raise them into the sky, throw them over their shoulders, girls wove yellow-blue ribbons into their hair.

On the asphalt stretched out a drawn flower field. The priest holds the icon of St. Vladimir. An elderly couple unfolds a home -made poster - "Ukraine is not on zusubs." The very young colored crayons are written on the poster: "We do not sell their homeland for buckwheat." On a protective grid on a road fence, they wrote "Glory to the Armed Forces, death of the Vorogs." Two megaphones walk along the crowd.

- One! One! Soborna Ukraine!

People sing the anthem, pressing the right hand to the heart.

The movement, the crowd saw that on the opposite side two military were delaying the guy in a brown jacket.

- A! Let go!

People climb over the fence, cross the road. Military vehicles with Z marking are leaving behind the regional council to Ushakov, and part of the crowd is separated, the paths are burning out to the cars-and the cars will fall away. People stop at hedgehogs cooked from the rails. Between them and the military - 80 meters. The border beyond which no one is crossing.

At the hedgehog, an elderly woman sets up a little bag and a poster “Rashista-killers of children”.

- Do you want our land to chill? Start with her. Bastling, you! - The woman shouts about 50 years old in a megaphone.

- Killers of children! - the crowd picks up.

In response, the military take out the column and include music. The anthem of the Soviet Union plays.

The protesters also find a column. The anthem of Ukraine plays.

The musical duel continues. The Russians include “Get up, children, stand in a circle”, “And Lenin is so young”, “I'm lying in the sun”.

- Go home, while alive! The crowd shouts.

The Russian military dance under the screams.

“Some water truce,” says a woman with her hair tied with a tape.

- War, not a truce with orcs! - Tights the very young guy.

- Water, water truce. There is only one river, everyone needs to drink. And the city is alone, and they are here, and we.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, the "water truce" was broken. In front of the City Council there is a stele with the Ukrainian flag, on the basis - portraits of the Khersons who died in the Donbass. Someone wrote in portraits, red on the faces of "Armed Forces-killers of the children of Donbass."

On Monday, the protesters gathered a little, less than a hundred people. People crossed the road and began to wash the inscription from portraits. Managed to erase two letters. The Russian military discovered the crowd shooting with light -school and gas grenades. One man fell and remained lying-bright red blood quickly flowed on his left leg.

He was taken to the hospital. The wounds turned out to be bullet - but, from the words of the doctors, they shot, probably, pneumatics or rubber. There were several wounds, the majority left abrasions, but one bullet went through and damaged the tibia on the lower leg, interrupted the vessels going inside.

The next day, the protesters came out again. There were even fewer of them - no more than 60 people. Nobody brought megaphone. People shouted: "Go home!" They sang the anthem. Those who shouted offensive were called provocateurs and hissed. One of the auto -zaks moved forward and said: “Dear citizens! Who will not disperse within five minutes will be detained. ” People remained standing. They shouted: "Not rosema!" Cars on Ushakov encouraged them with bundles. Through the street, in front of the White regional administration, the line of the Russian military was built - 80 people. They stood confidently, shifted from foot to foot. There was no haste in their movements.

The gas grenade flies with a rustle. Explosion, whistle, grenade falls on the step of the cinema, smoke. People are standing, and grenades fly again. One gets into the side by a man, he began to choke. He is dragged under his arms, put on a bench, waiting for an ambulance.

People run away into the alleys. Subby from the gas, return to the square again and again. They shout, no longer choosing words. They shoot at them.

The mayor of Kherson Igor Kolykhaev ordered to hang a new Ukrainian flag - a five -meter on the City Council, he closes several floors. The old, burnt, faded, removed from the building.