The sight was marvelous. People walked outside. Julia couldn’t believe it was true when she had finally gotten to safety.
He himself had spent two weeks in hiding from Russian soldiers. He listened in hiding as the Russian soldiers went to the neighbor’s door and rang the doorbell.
A neighbor later said the soldiers had checked his cell phone and ID papers. Then they had stolen the money from their wallets.
Julian’s home village is located in southern Ukraine at the confluence of the Dnieper River with the Black Sea. There are a couple of hundred kilometers to the Crimean peninsula occupied by Russia in 2014.
Through it, the soldiers came and began looting.
– They stole everything possible. Children’s clothes, household appliances, notebooks, Julia lists.
Julia says the Russian soldiers took incomprehensible things. Even toilet bowls.
– How are they going to transport toilet bowls in armored vehicles?
The same has been consulted elsewhere in Ukraine. In the second week, Ukraine took back large areas of the Kiev area from Russia. More than just looting was revealed.
In Butcha, civilians had been tortured and killed in the style of execution. Images of the man killed on the back of the bike and the civilians killed with their hands tied spread everywhere after the occupiers were evicted and the international press arrived.
No occupiers have been evicted from Julian’s home village. The entire Kherson region is largely under Russian control. No one knows exactly what the Russian troops there have done – or are currently doing.
Kherson is the only regional capital in Ukraine that Russian soldiers have managed to capture during the invasion war that began on February 24th.
Russian soldiers are in the city, but miraculously, the city administration is reportedly still in the hands of the Ukrainians.
Two weeks ago, the Russians arrived in Julian’s home village.
The soldiers settled in the houses from which the villagers had had time to escape. Most of those who had their own cars escaped in time.
Julia and two of her friends did not have a car. They stayed. When the Russians came, it became more difficult to leave.
The situation in Kherson is not as difficult as in the besieged Mariupol, but Russian soldiers are also blocking the escape of civilians in Kherson and its environs.
“They don’t let civilians out or eat food and medicine,” Julia says.
If any transportation is allowed in, it will only come to the city of Kherson, not to the villages further afield.
The flour and bread ran out first. Meat could still be bought when the villagers began slaughtering chickens and cattle due to lack of feed. The meat had to be prepared immediately, because the electricity went off as soon as the Russians arrived, and with it the refrigerators.
Long-term patients do not receive their medication.
– There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the entire Kherson region, Julia says.
According to Julian, Russian soldiers were looking for a shop in the village because they did not have food with them. The soldiers asked if there was a grocery store here.
There is, but no food, was the answer.
Julia is in the logistics industry expert, but he moved to Stanislav because of the impressive nature of the area. He worked remotely. He does not want his full name revealed because he does not know what the consequences may be as the war continues.
When the war broke out, two guys were with him.
Two weeks after the Russians arrived, the women decided to flee. The road to freedom was the same that Julia had moved to the area: the mouth of the Dnipro River.
Last Monday, Julia, her two friends and dogs Phoebe and Dori boarded a four-seater motorboat as the sun rose.
The trip took three hours in a severe storm. The waves hit the boat inside. Eventually, they entered an area held by Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian troops asked not to be told the exact location of the landing. The battle line between Ukrainian and Russian forces runs along the Julian escape route.
Julia gives an interview in a video call from Izmail just off the southern tip of Ukraine. Once safe, he finally got his cell phone charged.
News images of Bucha and other parts of Kiev appeared on the screen. Tortured and killed civilians.
Does Julia believe that a similar sight will await in the Kherson region if Russian soldiers are evicted? Five dead have already been confirmed in his home village. It has been worse in the neighborhood.
Julia begins to tell about the neighboring village of Oleksandrivka. Shortly before Julian’s escape, two women fled from there to Julian’s home village.
– Oleksandrivka no longer exists. It’s a grave, Julia says.
Or the open grave, as the Russians have not allowed dead civilians or soldiers to be buried, according to the locals. The village has been destroyed and the remaining civilians have not been allowed to leave, Julia says.
According to Julian, in the Kherson region, too, Russian soldiers are looking for certain Ukrainians on their lists. Listed are locals who have served in the Ukrainian troops, men, police, journalists and others who Russia considers its enemies.
Local politicians have also been abducted by Russian forces.
According to official data, there are hundreds of missing people in the city of Kherson alone. The fate of many is open.
Julia tells of a convoy of 12 cars, civilians fleeing Oleksandrivka towards the city of Mykolaiv. Only six of the cars arrived.
– Where are those six other cars?
You can discuss the topic on 13.4. until 11 p.m.