Flashback: It was a memorable moment for Cherson. At the end of April, all mobile phones in the city on the Black Sea suddenly lost their connection and the Internet connections collapsed. Shortly thereafter, Russian radio and television channels began broadcasting in the administrative district northwest of Russia’s annexed Crimea peninsula.
Russia, locals said, had cut them off completely from Ukrainian information and was preparing a “referendum” on the independence of the Kherson Oblast from Ukraine and on joining the Russian Federation. But this has not happened so far – the “unsatisfactory course of the war” has led to the postponement of the plans, reported the Russian exile Internet magazine “Meduza”, citing three sources in the Kremlin.
Because the Ukrainian army has not yet given up the fight for the partially conquered Cherson region: “Russia wants to occupy every city in eastern Ukraine or, if that doesn’t succeed, destroy it,” says Michailo Podoliak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kyiv will not stand idly by, but “recapture all occupied areas”. And so residents of Cherson reported over the weekend of more and more impacts from surrounding areas.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Russia is leaving no stone unturned to seize more parts of the Donbass or areas in southern Ukraine before the pompous celebrations planned by Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin on May 9. In a military parade, 11,000 soldiers are to march through Red Square, followed by hundreds of units of military equipment and heavy army trucks with nuclear missiles.
Like here two years ago, Vladimir Putin wants to visit the military parade.
(Photo: AP)
According to previously announced plans, eight MiG-29SMT fighter jets are to form a “Z” over the Kremlin and fly over the square. “Z” is the symbol for Russia’s war, which Putin calls the “denazification” of Ukraine. However, the “Z” was also used as a badge by the 4th SS Police Panzergrenadier Division, which had become known for its atrocities.
The Ukrainian fighting spirit is unbroken
The Russian army continued shelling in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine throughout the weekend. Above all, the Azovstal steel works held by Ukrainian units in the port city of Mariupol, which was otherwise occupied by Russian units, was the target of heavy bombing raids.
The Ukrainian fighters trapped in the besieged Azovstal steelworks want to continue their resistance to the bitter end if necessary. “We will continue to fight as long as we live to repel the Russian occupiers,” Captain Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, said in an online news conference. “We don’t have much time, we’re under heavy fire,” he said, asking the international community for help in evacuating wounded soldiers and remaining civilians.
According to the governor of the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, 60 people were killed in attacks on villages in the Donbass when they tried to escape to the school in the village of Bilohorivka. Of the 90 people who fled there, only 30, some seriously injured, could have been saved so far.
Ukraine-combat operations-16to9–2022-05-08
The Ukrainian army has withdrawn from the eastern Ukrainian city of Popasna in the Luhansk region to previously built, better-secured positions further west. The city had fallen into Russian hands, Moscow military reported.
The Cherson region remains contested
However, an adviser to President Zelensky said on social media that fighting continued: “Russian propagandists have happily reported that they have already taken the city, but that is not entirely true. This is the 117th ‘taking of Popasna’ they have claimed this week alone.”
The situation in Cherson, which Russian troops had already occupied on March 2, is just as contradictory. But the residents put up fierce resistance with repeated demonstrations under the slogan “Kherson is Ukrainian”.
It was only on April 25 that Russian units were able to take over the city and district administration and replace the mayor and governor of the province with pro-Russian politicians – officials who are completely unknown to the residents and who do not come from Cherson, as a Ukrainian journalist reported to the Handelsblatt did not want to be named.
Also read on this topic:
An adviser to the president of neighboring Crimea, Tamila Taschenwa, who was deposed as a result of the annexation, raises serious allegations. In the Cherson region, around 500 people were being held captive and tortured by Russian occupation forces.
This is the same scenario as with the conquest of Crimea in 2014: “First the Russian military came, then all Ukrainian sources of information were shut down, then people who were leaders in the resistance against Russia were kidnapped, and then a so-called referendum was held.” This sealed the annexation of Crimea to Russia.
And even now Moscow is planning referendums in the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” of Donetsk (DNR) and Luhansk (LNR) and in a “People’s Republic of Kherson” that has yet to be declared, said the US representative at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) , Michael Carpenter. This coincides with secret service findings from other countries. According to this, referendums on union with Russia are to be held in the LNR and DNR by May 15.
“There will be no so-called ‘People’s Republic of Cherson’,” announced Zelensky’s adviser, Podoljak. The area will be reclaimed.
>> Read also: Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister – “A long war plays into Putin’s hands”
On the other hand, Secretary General of Putin’s United Russia party, Andrei Turchak, said during a visit to Kherson on May 6: “Here is now Russia forever.” Anyone living there can already get a Russian passport.
By the middle of the month, all companies registered in the Kherson region would also have to register in the Russian company register, otherwise they would be expropriated and put under the administration of the new leadership installed by Russia, Kherson residents reported.
“But the situation in the city is not as good as officially portrayed,” admitted Gennady Shelstenko, reporting from Kherson for the Russian website Politnavigator. Thus, most residents would not go to work as they did not want to work for the occupying forces. There are long queues in front of banks, and people fear that they will no longer get their pensions.
According to reports from the relevant telecommunications companies, Ukraine has also succeeded in reinstalling the interrupted mobile and Internet connections. And in the port city of Odessa, classes have been set up to teach children who have fled Kherson.
More: The World After – How the Ukraine War Redistributed Power and Wealth