As the day progressed, the rumble of bullets and the rumble of explosions began to fade, said Abba. There was silence in the city around midnight.
“And that’s when we knew,” Abba told CNN. “it was very sad.”
On Saturday, Kolykhayev announced that Russian forces were everywhere, and that the city of about 300,000 people was without electricity and water, and in dire need of humanitarian aid.
Kolykhev said that the Russian army “settled” in the city and showed no signs of leaving.
“We need a lot of people here. We have cancer patients here. Children who need medicine. This medicine just isn’t reaching them,” he told CNN.
People living in Kherson under Russian occupation describe days of terror confined to their apartments and homes, afraid to go out even for basic necessities – their city is now a dystopian shell of the home they knew and loved. Were.
Five residents of Kherson told CNN in recent phone calls that checkpoints operated by Russian troops pepper the city’s streets. The streets are almost empty as residents have either fled the fighting, or are staying indoors for fear of encountering Russian soldiers. Residents and officials said grocery stores have been emptied and medicine is running out.
Russian troops have surrounded the city and are trying to release anyone, according to residents, including a top local health official, who CNN did not name for security reasons.
On Thursday, Russian forces attempted to shoot two people at a checkpoint, killing one and seriously injuring the other, the official told CNN.
According to the official, Russian troops have also blocked ambulances from reaching villages outside the city’s periphery. A woman going through a long and dangerous labor on the outskirts of the city had to turn to a video consultation after panicking from her doctor as Russian forces stopped a medical team from trying to help with the birth, the official said. Was. Was.
“About a day after local authorities begged the Russians, the mother and child were allowed to be taken to the hospital,” the official said. “it was horrible.”
Andrey Abba, who works as a tax lawyer, says he is determined to stay in Kherson, regardless of occupation, as long as the Ukrainian flag remains unfurled on government buildings.
“Even if we want to remove women and children from here, it is absolutely impossible,” he said. “They shoot anyone who tries to leave.”
“Humanitarian corridors should work today. Mariupol and Volnovakha. To save people. Women, children, the elderly. Give food and medicine to those who are left.
Yulia Alekseeva, the mother of a two-month-old baby, said she is struggling to find diapers and other baby products. “There are very few people in the city. We also have grandmothers with dementia who are in constant need of diapers and medicines, which are not available,” he told CNN.
Like most residents of the city, Alekseeva has left home with her family, looking only for basic necessities.
“We are in hiding. There is a curfew in the city, if people go out after 8 pm, they shoot. You cannot go in the company of more than two people,” she said.
But she remains defiant, saying: “The Ukrainian flag is still on Kherson, the city did not surrender to the invaders. The army asked not to provoke them and all survived.
A large crowd of protesters waving Ukrainian flags and confronting Russian forces took to the streets of Kherson on Saturday. Social media videos showed the army firing in the air to disperse the crowd.
From her apartment in Kherson where she takes care of her grandmother, Svetlana Zorina told CNN she will stay in the city “as long as the Ukrainian flag is up and the mayor is Ukrainian.” On Friday, she went to the grocery store only to find empty shelves, and then went to her mother’s apartment, who is abroad, where she collected pasta and rice.
“We are very afraid that we will become part of Russia. We do not want history to be repeated like Crimea,” he said, referring to Russia’s occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014. Be under the bombs instead of being part of Russia. ,
This is something that Abba is convinced will not happen in his city. Although he is consumed by fears of Russian occupation, he argues that, unlike Crimea, which became relatively bloodless, Kherson has vehemently opposed the occupation.
“The Russians have crossed a line several times,” he said. “can’t be done [another] Crimea.”
Tamara Qiblavi wrote and reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Gianluca Mezzofiore wrote and reported from London. Alisha Ibrahimji contributed to this report.