Ukraine troops greeted with flowers in Kherson after Russian retreat
(Reuters) - Villagers holding flowers waited on the road to the southern city of Kherson to greet and kiss Ukrainian soldiers on Saturday as they poured in to secure control of the right bank of the Dnipro River after a stunning Russian retreat.
Volleys of incoming and outgoing artillery fire continued to blast around Kherson's international airport and the police said they were setting up checkpoints in and around the city and sweeping for mines left behind by the Russians.
The mayor said the humanitarian situation was "severe" because of a lack of water, medicine and bread in the city where residents celebrated their liberation in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called a "historic day" on Friday.
In the hamlet of Klapaya, about 10 km from Kherson's center, Nataliya Porkhunuk, 66, and Valentyna Buhailova, 61, stood on the verge of a rutted track holding bunches of freshly-picked flowers, smiling, and waving at passing vehicles carrying Ukrainian troops.
"We've become 20 years younger in the last two days," Buhailova said, just before a Ukrainian soldier jumped out of a small truck and hugged the pair.
Outside the village of Chornobayivka, close to Kherson, a Reuters reporter saw incoming Russian fire that looked like a cluster munitions strike at the nearby airport. A volley of outgoing fire followed from the Ukrainian side shortly after.
Reuters reporters were turned back by soldiers near Kherson's outskirts and told it was too dangerous to go further.
One officer was wounded while demining one of Kherson's administrative buildings, the police said.
"The city has a critical shortage, mainly of water," Mayor Roman Holovnia told television. "There is currently not enough medicine, not enough bread because it can't be baked: there is no electric- ity."