Russian artillery shells hit the town of Kherson on Thursday, killing four people and shattering the peace, local officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claims to have annexed the region and the people here are now Russian. But his army is gone, killing civilians he’s sworn to protect.
Shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Kherson was taken over by Russian forces and emerged from months of occupation on 11 November when Kremlin forces withdrew. Residents now suffer from the violence that is so familiar to so many people in this country.
In a small grocery store, also destroyed by recent bombings, a desperate local resident was sifting through the rubble in search of leftover food and toilet paper rolls, trying to survive as little as possible.
The water supply in this town was cut off in a Russian attack, so I saw an elderly lady on the street putting a bucket under the drainpipe to catch a weak drop.
Those who, like Tatiana, do not want to take their last name, follow a dangerous path to the banks of the Dnipro River, where the city is located.
Russian forces still control the opposite bank, and the strategic river now marks the front line with Russian forces hundreds of meters away.
Tatiana fills her two black plastic buckets with water and heads up up the hill to the house. “How can you live without water? We need it for laundry, bathrooms and dishes,” she says. “What should I do? I can’t live without water. That’s why I’m here.”
Just two weeks ago, Moscow’s Central Square was the scene of revelry following the Russian withdrawal, one of Moscow’s biggest setbacks in the war. Today there is a tent set up up by the county as a memorial to various hardships. One to warm you up, one to charge your phone, and another to help those who are exhausted and want to go further.
In the charging tent, people of all ages crowd around tables, drinking tea and plugging into endless outlets. The air is thick with body heat and breath.