‘Wherever Russians were, they blew things up’ An eyewitness account of Russia’s retreat from Kherson and what’s happening there now
Story by Zerkalo. English version by Emily Laskin.
On November 11, The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the “transfer” of all of the groupings stationed in Kherson to the Dnipro River’s left bank was complete – more than 30,000 soldiers and 5,000 armored vehicles. By the evening of November 11, the first videos appeared of Kherson residents greeting their army with Ukrainian flags, chanting “UAF!” and hugging soldiers. The Belarusian publication Zerkalo spoke with one resident who witnessed the Russian retreat from the city. Meduza publishes this material with the permission of Zerkalo’s editors.
On Wednesday, November 9, Russian authorities announced that troops would retreat from Kherson – the single Ukrainian regional center Russia has managed to capture since the beginning of the invasion. On Thursday, local chat groups shared messages like “There’s no power or water in the city, and cell signals are intermittent.” We managed to connect with one resident on Telegram around 10:00pm, when his mobile Internet suddenly started working.
“I can only get a signal on the balcony, if I step a meter away into the kitchen, it breaks and nothing loads well,” Matvey said, describing the situation. “So the balcony is my office.”
Matvey lives in the center of the city, on an upper floor of a highrise. His smartphone has a Russian SIM card. Normal calls go through, but there are problems with the Internet. He said Thursday night was the first time in five days that he had a connection. “Connection” in this case is fairly complicated. We called each other 46 times to be able to speak even a little. The closer it got to midnight, the more often I had to say “hello, hello, I can’t hear you.” Matvey constantly heard rockets overhead.
“In the last few days we all saw the Russians leaving the city,” he says. “We saw their equipment loaded with washing machines and chairs. I personally saw two Kamaz trucks driving, full of beer. It was obvious that something was happening. On Wednesday there was no cell signal or Internet in the center, so I didn’t learn that Shoigu gave up Kherson until Thursday, when I went to work. The first thing I thought was ‘Where are ours? Give me a kalashmat (note: kalashmat is army slang for a Kalashnikov machine gun) and I’ll drive them further back.’”
According to Matvey, in recent days it was visibly obvious that the number of Russian soldiers in Kherson had decreased sharply. Earlier, just going to the store you’d see “two or three of their vehicles” and men walking “in formation.” Russian patrols were also visible at night. But on Thursday, November 10, Matvey saw practically no one.
Matvey said the recent situation in Kherson has been increasingly tense, and every day is worse.
“You can hear explosions around the city. I read that they blew up some kind of administrative building. It seems like the television tower is gone. As I understand it, wherever Russians were, and whichever direction they left, they blew things up,” Matvey said. At that point, he got distracted by the sound of an incoming missile. It was the first, but not the last, rocket that Matvey heard and saw during the hour our constantly interrupted conversation lasted.
“Russians, as I understand it, are firing around the city or outside the city. The explosions started toward evening, but we didn’t pay much attention, just went about our business. So something exploded – every day for us something goes bang. Then the Internet came back, and I went out on the balcony and now I’m watching all this,” Matvey was saying. “The windows are already shaking. Mine look out on the left bank. It seems like the missiles are coming from there.” Matvey’s voice stayed calm. He says he’s not going to a shelter.
“As long as they’re not striking our neighborhood, it makes no sense to go find a basement,” he explained. “They just keep retreating. Clearly they’re going to blow things up and shoot up the city. Before, I used to see them launch missiles from the left bank, and they’d fly over Kherson and head toward Mykolaiv or Snihurivka – they were shooting over us. Now they’re shooting closer to us. Every time, the explosions are louder and louder, even though it’s not on the news that the UAF is near Kherson.”
Matvey says that when missiles from the Ukrainian side exploded in the city a month ago, it was clear what they were and where they were going: to a building where Russian soldiers lived. “We were even happy at that moment,” he remembers, “but now, when they [Russians] shoot, it’s not clear at what, and that’s a little scary. We understand that we might have the same situation as Mariupol, with houses getting shelled, it’ll happen. My family and I are planning that if they open the border to Mykolaiv, I’ll get them out and then come back. In general, the people who stayed are the people who couldn’t leave, or who didn’t want to.”
On Thursday night, the entire city was without power. In Matvey’s home, as of November 10, the electricity hadn’t worked for six days. The taps in his apartment had no water during that period. Only the radiators which ran on gas were still going.
“People are buying up flashlights, batteries, and candles,” he said. “I knew this was coming, so I prepared. I have three power banks, flashlights, a fair amount of battery-powered string lights. During the day I can charge my power banks on the generator at work.”
He also prepared food: a sack of pasta, rice, canned food. He collects water in a stash of plastic bottles that he got over the summer. He’s also prepared a space in the basement with bedding and clothes in case the situation in the city gets worse.
“My neighbors said they already have a shelter prepared and I can stay with them,” he says. “But generally people don’t really want to take a lot of things down to shelters ahead of time, because there are a lot of thieves. The other day someone stole two packages of diapers from behind my friend’s back, while he was unloading groceries from the car. What can I say, there are such people. They steal. Shops in the city have been broken into.”
He also says that locals are trying to get rid of Russian money, which they think is about to depreciate. As to what will happen to locals who got Russian passports, Matvey says with a smile “ooooh, I don’t know.” He adds that he learned recently of two such people at his work. “They were happy, now they’re silent. One seems to be missing. Though I don’t think he’s left yet. The other goes around silently. Everyone told him, wait and see, you’ll go be with them soon. They understand that it won’t be good for them.”
According to Matvey, some locals who were pro-Russian have gone to the left bank of the Dnipro. But for those who stayed and defended Ukraine for months, waiting for the UAF, the news about Russia surrendering Kherson was very good. “They said, ‘finally’” Matvey says, describing their emotions succinctly but fully. He adds that despite the difficulties surrounding them, people try to lead normal lives.
“They walk around, go shopping, many work. At work they ask, ‘So? What’s up? When will ours be here? What’s on the news?’” He says many are already used to the sound of explosions. “Of course if they were launching missiles into the city, into homes, people would be scared. But while there’s no mass shelling, no one’s planning to sit in their basement. I remember one situation when Russians were in the city, shelling and shooting. At that time there was a local movement, trying to protect Kherson. I remember we were in the park, trying to hold off the offensive, and people were going out for milk, which they were giving away for free, and going shopping. We would stop people and say ‘Where are you going? The Russians are there.’ And they’d say, ‘We’re just going for milk.’ We turned a lot of people around. So we don’t have a lot of people who are afraid.”
On Friday Matvey wrote, “UAF are in the city! We’re celebrating!”
The Internet was still bad in Kherson so he recorded a voice memo:
“We went to the park to look at the toppled television tower, and we heard from people there that they’d seen our soldiers in the Tavrichesky neighborhood, and that a car flying a Ukrainian flag drove through the city center. We went downtown, to the administrative area, and people were gathering there. They were shouting ‘Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!’ and hanging flags on the administration, on the city sign, on stores. Cars in the center stopped and honked. Everyone was walking around joyfully. People said that our troops were getting into Kherson little by little. I think it will take a long time to clean up the city, there are still armed Russian soldiers dressed as civilians here.”
Story by Zerkalo
English version by Emily Laskin