“Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of dead civilians and soldiers were found,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Sunday, without specifying the locations where the bodies were discovered. “The Russian army left behind the same savagery that it did in other parts of the country it entered,” he said. It was not immediately possible to verify Zelenskyy’s claims. Russia denies that its troops are deliberately targeting civilians. Mass graves have been found in many places across Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, including civilian bodies showing evidence of torture discovered in the northeastern region of Kharkiv and in Bucha, near the capital Kyiv. Ukraine blamed Russian troops for committing the crimes. A United Nations panel in October said war crimes had been committed in Ukraine and that Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human rights abuses in the first weeks of the war. Ukrainians in Kherson expressed a deep sense of relief after Russian forces withdrew on Friday after months of occupation. The region was one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed in September, a move branded illegal by Kyiv and denounced by Western countries. The Russians retreated on Friday, with residents expressing relief that the soldiers had left [AFP] Some residents accused the Russians of laying mines and looting — even stealing animals from a zoo — before retreating. “God will punish them. All of them. For everything they did,” said 47-year-old Svitlana Vilna.
No water, no electricity
Ukrainian troops have arrived in the southern city of Kherson after Russia abandoned the regional capital, which fell shortly after the February 24 invasion. The withdrawal marked the third major Russian retreat of the war and followed a major Ukrainian counteroffensive that had retaken parts of the east and south. Most homes in the Ukrainian city are still without power and water, according to regional officials, and artillery exchanges continued to echo over the city. “We are happy now, but all of us are afraid of the shelling from the left bank,” said Yana Smyrnova, a 35-year-old singer standing in the city’s central square, referring to Russian weapons on the eastern side of the Dnieper River. Scores of residents — some draped in Ukrainian flags — lined up to get food and use Starlink satellite Internet to connect with relatives. “I need to get in touch with my family,” Klavdia Mych, a retired teacher, told AFP news agency. “We have been without water for a week,” the 69-year-old added. “And they say everything is minable. It’s very scary.” The governor of Kherson region, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said authorities decided to maintain a curfew from 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT) until 8:00 am. (06:00 GMT) and ban people from leaving or entering the city as a security measure. . “The enemy has mined all critical infrastructure,” Yanusevych told Ukrainian television. “We try to meet within a few days and [then] open up the city,” he said. Zelensky also warned the residents of Kherson about the presence of Russian mines. “Please do not forget that the situation in the Kherson region remains very dangerous,” he said. Residents flocked to use the Starlink satellite system for their smartphones. Ukrainian authorities are working to restore water and electricity to the city, with the first trains expected to run this week [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]
Minimize contact
Officials reported some progress in restoring normalcy to the city, which had a pre-war population of about 290,000 people. Presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko told Telegram that a mobile phone connection was already working in the city center, while the head of Ukraine’s state railways said train services to Kherson were expected to resume this week. Residents said the Russians had been gradually leaving over the past two weeks, but their final departure only became clear when the first Ukrainian troops entered the city of Kherson on Thursday. “It was a gradual thing,” said Alexii Sandakov, 44, a videographer. “First their special police went. Then the ordinary police and their administration. Then you started to see less soldiers in the supermarkets and then their military vehicles moving away.” Many residents interviewed by the Reuters news agency said they tried to minimize contact with the Russians and knew of people who were arrested and abused for showing any expression of Ukrainian patriotism. Sadakov said Russian troops had looted the homes of Ukrainian soldiers who fled the city before the takeover and would inspect the bodies of young men passing through checkpoints for tattoos of Ukrainian nationalist groups. Ukraine’s defense ministry said it had recaptured 179 settlements and 4,500 square kilometers (1,700 square miles) along the Dnieper River since the start of the week. Recapturing the city opens a gateway for Ukraine to the entire Kherson region, with access to both the Black Sea to the west and the Sea of Azov to the east.
