Around the city’s bombed-out buildings, the mountains of trash left behind by Russian soldiers, and the streets pockmarked with shrapnel, groups of smiling, happy residents gathered to chat. When cars drove past, they waved and smiled. They described feelings of ecstasy at the sight of Ukrainian troops and debated the most apt insults for Russian soldiers: whether they were “pigs” or “beasts,” they asked each other. Snihurivka sat firmly on the front line, just a kilometer away from Ukrainian positions, and was recaptured by Ukrainian forces on Thursday. Russia’s defense ministry announced an orderly withdrawal of its forces in the south after Ukraine repeatedly destroyed its supply lines and ammunition depots. The outbursts of joy taking hold across the newly-reclaimed southern territory stem from the hope instilled in residents by the much-discussed southern offensive, first announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in late June and then again in late August. Ukrainian forces took their first decisive steps in early October. Unlike the northern regions of Ukraine, including areas near Kyiv, which were liberated while the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the invasion, or the Kharkiv region, which was recaptured while the world looked away, the liberation of the Kherson region was so fun from ukraine. authorities that it became a fixation for many Ukrainians, especially for those who lived there. A resident picks up some of the bullets littering the ground near a former Russian military post. “I have a radio – with a battery,” said Sasha, a slight man in his 60s, stepping carefully over a pile of sand in case the Russians had left mines underneath. “I knew the [the Ukrainian army] was coming We just waited.” “I can’t tell you what it felt like to watch [Ukrainian troops]. We sat for eight months without electricity, without water,” said Olga Ivanovna, Sasha’s neighbor and friend. “We slept in our basements, dressed up. Three months! Three months, we’ve been waiting!” Residents said they tried to catch the news by any means possible after their electricity was cut and Russian soldiers went door-to-door confiscating phones. Some had generators and were able to watch Ukrainian TV. some managed to keep their phones and climbed to the top of abandoned five-story apartment buildings to get a signal. Standing outside her home talking to friends, 65-year-old Vera Borisovna pointed to her empty flower bed and rafters, saying “There is nothing left, we took it all to give to our children,” her voice shaking as she spoke of the moment Ukrainian soldiers entered the city. A girl in front of her battered apartment where she lives with her mother and sister. “I can’t stop smiling because it’s been eight months without smiling,” said Borisovna, whose home was between Russian positions and who once had to duck behind her fence to avoid shrapnel that littered the road her. He said he kept a diary because that was the only way he could keep track of which date he was without power. Almost none of Snihurivka’s residents left when the invasion began or after they were taken over, they said. They were either too old or didn’t have enough money, or both. They described themselves as hostages, dodging stray incoming fire while trying to find supplies and avoid Russian soldiers. The hardships fostered a sense of community and solidarity that residents said brought them together. The head of the city’s market, for example, Oleksandr Shevachuk, traveled with his wife, Valentyna, to Kherson at their own risk to buy food for the city’s only store, which they set up in their garage. Oleksandr Shekavcuk at the town’s only shop, which he and his wife, Valentyna, run out of their garage. But as in other towns and villages across Ukraine, there were people, mostly men, who, while happy to have the Ukrainians back, would likely carry the scars of occupation for the rest of their lives. Volodymyr Perepilnitsia, 58, was captured by the Russians three times, regularly beaten, tortured and intimidated. As a former Ukrainian army captain and police officer, his name was on a Russian list of potential pro-Ukrainian rioters. Volodymyr Perepilitsia talks to a neighbor on his street. The first time the Russians took him in for questioning, they accused him of being a “crook”, slang for a spy. The second time they arrested him because he refused to accept their humanitarian aid and then, he said, ransacked his house as punishment. The third time he was arrested was because a 20-year-old Ukrainian soldier, whom he had seen severely beaten by Russian troops the day before, had disappeared. Perepilnitsia said the soldier had escaped with his wife on a moped at night. “They kept me in solitary confinement for five consecutive nights and beat me,” said Perepilnitsia, who said the Russians used the local police station as an interrogation center. “They beat a young man to death. I know because I heard it. I was in the next cell and I heard them hitting him and then I heard them drag him out.” Perepilnitsia said he did not know where the dead had been buried, but said there were “many” men who had disappeared since the Russians took control in March. Before the Russians left Snihurivka, which locals said happened within a few hours, they planted what is likely to be future misery for the town’s residents. “All the fields are mined,” Perepilnitsia said, pointing to the land surrounding the city. “A farmer boy went out yesterday to see the new cemetery and was blown away. No one has gone to claim his body yet. He survived here and died there. What can I say?” A Ukrainian soldier checks the site of a former Russian military base for mines and traps. The head of Ukraine’s national security council, Oleksiy Danilov, told Ukrainian television that the Russians had mined “huge areas” of the area before their retreat, as well as leaving explosives. “Anyway, you see what they’ve done here – pigs,” Perepilnitsia said, pointing to the charred buildings and the sea of ​​trash surrounding them. Accompanying Perepilnitsia was the jack russell puppy, which peed on the tires of the car. “Prostate!” he exclaimed. Patron is the name of the Jack Russell that the rescuers of Kiev trained to find mines in the first days of the war, now known throughout the country. It seems that despite their isolation and suffering, the people of Snihorivka were watching the war along with the rest of Ukraine.