The Borneo Post (Sabah)

‘We could die tomorrow’: Fears of Russian retaliatio­n in Kherson

- Dmitry Zaks

KHERSON, Ukraine: The Ukrainian welder pondered the a erlife while whispering wedding vows to the nurse with whom he had three children in just-liberated Kherson.

Andriy Krivov was bracing for Russia’s retaliatio­n following its retreat from the city on which it underpinne­d its campaign along Ukraine’s entire southern front.

The booms of Ukrainian artillery echoed inside the empty cathedral as the humblydres­sed couple bowed before the Orthodox priest.

The retreating Russians fired back salvos from the east bank of the Dnipro River running down the slope from the singing church choir.

The rockets raised dust over the ruined roads and mined fields encircling the city Russia held from the war’s start until last week.

Krivov was fairly certain they would soon start hi ing Kherson itself.

“We could die tomorrow,” the 49-year-old said a er finally marrying the woman with whom he had spent most of his life.

“Kherson is now part of the front. And when they start bombing, we want to stand before God as man and wife.”

Retreat and retaliatio­n

Russia’s retreat from the city it hoped to make its central base in Ukraine’s occupied south has reshaped the nearly ninth-month war.

Kherson’s importance to the Kremlin – both because of its link to Russian-annexed Crimea and Ukraine’s Odessa port to the west – spared it from destructio­n.

Its carefully-staged recapture in the third month of Kyiv’s broader counterass­ault stymied President Vladimir Putin’s plans to seize Ukraine’s entire southern coast.

Kherson now stands in the crossfire of a Ukrainian push into the eastern parts of its eponymous region – and possibly even Crimea itself.

The danger will linger because most think Ukraine wants to strike before the Russians have a chance to regroup.

“Russia gains more from a pause, which is why Ukraine has an incentive to keep pushing,” said Rob Lee of the USbased Foreign Police Research Institute.

Western officials say Russia still managed to pull out most of its forces and set up defensive lines on the Dnipro’s east bank.

Fears of Russia’s retaliatio­n on a city it no longer has strategic incentive to save played on the welder’s mind on his way to church.

“The chances are very high that they will start bombing us now,” he said while holding nurse Natalia’s hand.

Two different fronts

Lydia Belova was ready to suffer.

The 81-year-old former poultry farmer patiently waited her turn to fill up plastic jugs from a hose running from to a local spring.

The Russians cut off Kherson’s power and destroyed most of its infrastruc­ture on their way out.

Belova spent eight-and-ahalf months watching Russian soldiers ransack stores and hunt down those who stood up to their rule.

She figured that hardship was worth the price for pushing the Russians a li le further back.

“Freedom is always more important,” she said.

“Water is not a big deal. We can stand in line. But Ukraine – we must defend it.”

This determinat­ion highlights the main distinctio­n of Ukraine’s southern front from the ba les being waged across its east.

Neither Kherson nor its neighbouri­ng Zaporizhzh­ia region were under Russian control prior to the war.

But Russia imposed indirect rule over parts of eastern Lugansk and Donetsk during an insurgency its proxies launched in 2014.

Those opposed to Putin there – many of them younger Ukrainian speakers from birth – had eight years to relocate further west.

The largely Ukrainian-speaking south is confrontin­g Putin’s forces for the first time.

Army of thieves

Kherson hospital director Iryna Starodumov­a watched the invasion expose fundamenta­l ri s among her staff.

The exhausted doctor lost half her workers prior to the Kremlin’s annexation of all four ba le-torn region in late September.

A portion of those who stayed once the borders were effectivel­y sealed appeared to accept Russian rule.

“I never suspected in my 42 years here that I was working with people whose views differed from those we all thought we shared,” she said.

“The (pro-Russians) came in, did their job and took their views home with them,” she said during one of her rare breaks.

“We tried to be tolerant.” The church pastor was less forgiving.

Protodeaco­n Andriy’s Kherson cathedral housed the remains Grigory Potemkin – a storied commander under Catherine the Great.

His name is now broadly associated with fake villages built to please the tsarina during a tour of her new holdings along the Dnipro.

But Kherson honoured Potemkin as a founding father and the pastor was proud to oversee his remains in the crypt. Now they are gone.

“The Russians came with their guns and took him about two weeks ago,” the pastor said a er the wedding.

“We’ve had two world wars, the Nazis and the godless communists, and no one touched him,” he fumed.

The Russians also evacuated the commander’s monument and other artefacts across Kherson.

“I guess they wanted to take home their heritage,” said the pastor.

“But it only shows how they are nothing but an army of thieves.” — AFP

We could die tomorrow. Kherson is now part of the front. And when they start bombing, we want to stand before God as man and wife.

Andriy Krivov

 ?? — AFP photos ?? An Orthodox priest performs a wedding ceremony for local residents, Andriy and Natalia at the St. Catherine’s Cathedral in the recaptured city of Kherson.
— AFP photos An Orthodox priest performs a wedding ceremony for local residents, Andriy and Natalia at the St. Catherine’s Cathedral in the recaptured city of Kherson.
 ?? ?? Ukrainian tankists greet people as they ride on a road in Kherson amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian tankists greet people as they ride on a road in Kherson amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
 ?? ?? Kherson’s residents draw water in recently recaptured city amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kherson’s residents draw water in recently recaptured city amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
 ?? ?? An unexploded Uragan missile (at the foreground) and a man laying down a er another Russian Uragan missiles explosion in Kherson region.
An unexploded Uragan missile (at the foreground) and a man laying down a er another Russian Uragan missiles explosion in Kherson region.

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