How the occupied Kherson lives and whether Russia has a chance to create a “Kherson People’s Republic”. Local residents answer

Some time after the occupation by the Russian troops of Kherson and units of the region, rumors appeared about the possible plan to create in the region the “Kherson People’s Republic” - “KhNR”. Is there a prospect of this initiative and whether it is worth fearing to create a ruble zone in the south of Ukraine, “Novaya Gazeta. Europe ”was told by local residents.

Only under the muzzle of a machine gun

From the first days of the war, Russian troops began to occupy settlements in the region. The invaders entered the regional center on March 3 (the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported on the capture of the city a day earlier). “First, the city was taken to the ring: the surrounding villages and the airfield were busy. Then the Russian military entered the city, ”Elena Kostyuchenko wrote from Kherson from Kherson.

Already on March 4, the Russians wanted to hold a rally in the city for the creation of the “Kherson People’s Republic”, but nothing came of it, the local publication “Supilna Kherson” said . Instead, people with Ukrainian flags entered the rally.

“From this day we are constantly going to rallies,” said 46-year-old Marina, a resident of Kherson. -Recently, it has become truly dangerous. As soon as we gather in the square near the regional administration, for five minutes-and the military throw us with noise grenades, let tear gas ... each time there are three or four wounded, and this is very scary. You never know where it will fly, because the Russians throw [grenades] just into the crowd.

A member of the rallies admits that now she is trying not to go into the middle of the crowd. In addition, according to her, the invaders are determined among the protesters of the most active people, and then they are kidnapped on the street or from home. She says that activists are taken to prison, where they are tortured.

“I cannot answer for all the Kherson, but no one will go to my surroundings voluntarily to the referendum,” Marina is sure. - Of course, if they come home and withdraw under the muzzle of a machine gun, it is difficult to resist here.

If everyone wants it to the “Russian World”, as your propaganda broadcasts, why then are they fleeing the region?

Because of the war, I was left without work. Now I need to leave, and not only because of problems with earnings. If the Kherson region remains under the influence of Russia, I do not want to live in a country where all types of freedoms are missing. I want to maintain my right to freedom of speech and opinion, so that they do not shoot at me at a peaceful rally.

This is a manipulation

The Kherson journalist and public activist Konstantin Ryzhenko believes that the story with a referendum is the result of an information and psychological operation, when we can observe how people influence the manipulation, and their perception of reality changes from denial to acceptance.

“For two months they download the topic with a referendum,” says Konstantin. - then March 12, then March 17, then - on March 27 a referendum. Everything is against, but every day, rallies become more and more, and reports about the referendum are more likely to sound. By some point, people will just stop reacting to this.

The first official reports of the intention of the invaders to hold a referendum about the creation of the KhNR appeared on March 12. The deputy of the Kherson Regional Council, Sergei Hlan, said on Facebook that the Russians called him and his colleagues with the question of whether they were ready to cooperate with them. The hut refused. On the same day, an emergency meeting of the Kherson Regional Council took place, and all 44 deputies supported the appeal, which states: "Khersonism was, is and will be an integral part of a single state - Ukraine." This happened before the Russian military captured the building of the Kherson Regional Council.

Information about the intention of the occupying authorities to conduct the so -called “referendum” on the same day was confirmed by the Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleb. The Kherson Regional Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation on the fact of preparing an encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, committed by preliminary conspiracy by a group of persons (part 1 of article 14, part 2 of article 110 of the Criminal Code of the country). Article 73 of the Constitution of Ukraine says that changing the territory of the country is possible only by holding an all -Ukrainian referendum.

Regarding the date of "referendum" appeared different versions. The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova spoke of the period from May 1 to 10. On April 16, she stated that the ballots were already being printed in the new Kakhovka: “Obviously, all protocols according to the results of the“ vote ”will be prepared in advance and delivered to the regional center.”

“I have never heard agitation for the creation of the KHNR, I have not seen a single advertising poster in the city,” says pensioner Zhanna Nikolaevna.

-Usually, if something similar is planned, some kind of election bustle is always observed. This is not in Kherson. Although, maybe they [invaders] do not need our consent.

Residents of the occupied region, with whom we managed to communicate, argue that those who receive Russian humanitarian aid should now present passports from which the military rewrite. Many were worried that this would be used for fake voting.

“Indeed, there are such facts,” says Konstantin Ryzhenko. - I see that both the Ukrainian and Russian humanitarian aids are sold in the markets. I suppose that checking passports is conditional insurance to make sure that the local resident receives assistance. Sometimes volunteers are really asked to check the documents and even photograph the recipient - this is necessary to control the distributors themselves. But in Russians, this action may have a dual purpose: reinsurance from corruption and data collection for referendum.

The mayor of Kherson Igor Kolykhaev suggests that the KhNR will still not be. “I have no exact information. I communicate with the inhabitants of our city and see that there are no signs that there will be a referendum. When they plan it, it’s hard to say now. What I see: there will be no referendum. I think that they are most likely [planning an area] to attach to [Crimea]. It makes no sense to make another quasi -republic. There is no preparation for a referendum, ”he said in an interview with NV.

Does the Gauleiters have power?

This week - April 25 - the Russian military captured the building of the Kherson Regional Council. The next day, as the mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhaev said , the military presented the so -called “new head of the Kherson administration” - Alexander Kobets. The invaders appointed Vladimir Saldo as the head of the Kherson Regional Administration. Kolykhaev emphasized that he refused to cooperate with them and turned to the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky for explanations of what to do in such a situation.

After the capture of the Kherson Regional Council, less than a week passed, but the "new authorities" have already begun to unfold active activities. On April 28, Kirill Stremuzov, “appointed” to the post of “deputy chairman of the military-civil administration” of the Kherson region, said that since May 1, the occupied region has been transferred to the ruble zone. According to him, the transition is planned for four months - during this period the ruble and hryvnias will be in circulation - and then the Kherson region will completely switch to rubles.

“We don’t talk about the replacement of hryvnias with a ruble,” said Natalya B., an entrepreneur from the naked pier of the Kherson region. - I will admit how a person working with finances, I can’t imagine how to organize a cash flow in such a short time. If they are going to bring rubles here, then they must organize the work of their treasury and banks - the money should not just be pieces of paper, they need accounting. I believe that this is technically impossible in the coming months. In my store, the terminal continues to work without problems, people are calculated by cards, pensions and salaries come to them, albeit sometimes late.

According to Natalia, in relation to employees of the Golopostan City Council, as in the Kherson administration, today there is a great pressure from the Russian military, local officials are trying to persuade to cooperate. People do not want - they are intimidated. MP Yuri Zelenin was beaten. The mayor of Alexander Babich was abducted, and for a month now nothing is known about him. On Svetlana Linnik, replacing the city chapter, is scary to watch. It can be seen that a person holds out of last strength, is in the strongest nervous tension. Employees of the city administration were forced to leave their jobs - no one wants to cooperate with the invaders. The building is empty for the fourth day, so far no one has taken over the city.

“On Easter night, the invaders removed our flags and hung their own,” Natalya continues.

-The Russian flag hangs in the city center, but the flagpole ends still with a trident-Ukraine is still higher.

On the first day, Russian flags were removed by unknown people. Now the Russians again hung their own, but are forced to protect them.

With a fair amount of skepticism, Konstantin Ryzhenko also refers to the initiatives of Gauleiters.

“They began to disseminate the information that local entrepreneurs will now pay taxes in the Russian treasury and there will be a ruble zone here,” the public leader and journalist argues. - But Russian officials do not make such statements, because they did not even declare us an officially occupied territory. And it turns out that these statements are an imitation of the lower initiative, because the Russian media cite local Gauliters. Type this Kherson is asking for themselves. How do ordinary people perceive such information? Since the Gaulya are sitting in administrative offices, put some seal, they say something on the camera, then they have the right to make any decisions? But most people still do not know laws, therefore they begin to doubt.

Collaborators are free and involuntarily

Since the beginning of the occupation, the Russian military abduct local residents, including politicians and journalists. So, for example, on April 9, Ukrainian media wrote about the abduction of the ex-head of the Kherson regional administration Andrei Putilov. At the end of March, the Russians abducted the mayor of the city of Naked Pier Alexander Babich and another seven local residents.

Later, on April 27, the Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine reported that in the occupied territories, the Russian military massively abduct men of draft age. In addition to Kherson, this happens in the territories of the Kharkov, Zaporizhzhya, Nikolaev, Lugansk and Donetsk regions.

“I did not find confirmation that male recruitment is exported from the occupied territory in the Kherson region,” says Konstantin Ryzhenko. - But there is another problem: when the Russians occupied small villages with a population of up to a thousand people, they took phones from local residents so that they could not fix anything in the photo and video. I know that some local people attracted to load shells, dig trenches, and make fortifications. As far as I understand, this is considered mobilization in wartime conditions. It became known about such facts two to three days later, when someone managed to escape from the occupied village or get in touch. But there is no photo and video confirmation, the military carefully monitors that no one can shoot.

Despite all the hardships that are most exhausting for all Kherson, the story with a collaboration was.

“On April on April on the schools of the Kherson region, the school year was ahead of schedule, and in May all teachers were sent on vacation for a month, which is not known further,” says Olga S., an accountant of one of the schools of the Kherson region. - The director read to teachers the order of the Ministry of Education that if they agree to teach at the school under the occupation authorities, they are recognized as collaborators. They must either refuse to work and leave the occupied area, or accept what the invaders offer them. The police have the same situation. I did not leave until May 1 - you are fired under the article as a suspect of betrayal. At first they threw us, and then they declared enemies.

“Here Kherson was fired the day before yesterday,” Olga continues. - They say that this is an Armed Forces. Others argue that it was Russians who shot from Chulakovka (a village of 25 km from a naked pier) to Kherson, two missiles were released to simulate the shelling of the Ukrainian army and configure the locals against Ukraine. And what is the use of tuning us? We already hate all Kyiv - we abandoned us. At the post office, they told me that from May 1 there will already be a ruble zone, and we will stop paying salaries and pensions. We are told that in the summer teachers will be sent to Crimea to study. At the same time, Ukraine states that in this case, teachers will be recognized as traitors. That is, in order not to become an enemy, you need to abandon work. I am a simple accountant. What is the collaborator? I have nothing to feed my family. Those who had cars and money found a way to leave. I have nothing of this. And I, it turns out, is a traitor?

The first deputy chairman of the Kherson Regional Council, Yuri Sobolevsky, said that in Genichesk, the Russian military, together with collaborators, forcibly gathered school principals and demanded from them lists of teachers who, from 1 St., will teach them under their new program. He also noted that the agreers will be sent to Crimea to retraining courses. The rest will be kicked out of work.

The story of the difficult situation of teachers in the Kherson region is confirmed by the politician Sergei Hlan. According to him, in Kakhovka in schools they also “poke the Law on Collaboration”, but at the same time they cut off the salary, and for April they also paid with a great late. Teachers remain in the occupied territory also because they try to preserve the property of schools, and they are still suspected of treason.

“Regarding the fact that the money will stop paying, this is not true,” Konstantin Ryzhenko is sure. - I was confirmed that the treasury will continue to fulfill all its obligations to citizens of Ukraine.

Pensions will be issued in any layout, when they can be ahead, but can be delayed for a couple of days. Typically, about 90% of pensions on the card are closed.

The most problematic are just 10% of pensions that give out in cash, they will try to find opportunities to individually issue a pension.

For more than two months, residents of the Kherson region live in constant stress, many have lost the ability to distinguish between the truth and lies in the information translated by them and reached the limit of nervous exhaustion.

“I don’t care who will be here, if only some stability and the opportunity to feed the family,” the accountant Olga says through tears. - The Chinese will come, I will teach Chinese, only let them not shoot.

“What is happening to us today is moral violence today,” Natalya B. sighs “the invaders are mocking my desires and beliefs. I did not call you here and lived perfectly until February 24. And you make you live according to other laws, break my life. My body does not seem to suffer, but it hurts exactly the same.