Ukraine liberates the Cherson region, according to President Selenskyj, the blue and yellow flag is again waving over around 60 locations. But the legacies of the Russian army are dangerous: several people die from mines. The army is trying to clear the area of the explosive devices.
After Russian troops withdrew from Kherson, Ukrainian security forces began clearing mines in the region. 2,000 explosive devices have already been defused, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He reported massive destruction in the region. "Before fleeing from Cherson, the occupiers destroyed the entire critical infrastructure - communications, water supply, heating, electricity."
According to the President, the Ukrainian troops have now recaptured around 60 towns in the Cherson region. After eight months of Russian occupation, Ukrainian television was again available in the city of Cherson. The regional energy supplier announced that it was working on restoring the power supply.
In the village of Pravydne, just outside Cherson, returnees hugged their neighbors, some unable to hold back tears. "Victory at last," said Switlana Halak, who lost her eldest daughter in the war. "Thank God we were freed and everything is falling into place," said the 43-year-old. "We are Ukraine," added her 44-year-old husband Viktor. Several defused anti-tank mines and grenades can be seen in the settlement, as well as some damaged houses.
Yaroslav Yanushevich, head of Ukraine's military administration in the Kherson region, said in a video published on the Internet that he was "very happy to be here (in Kherson) at this historic moment". Everything will be done for a "return to normal life". In addition to clearing mines, a curfew was imposed and access to the city was restricted, Yanushevich said in the video. He stood in the center of Cherson, while people could be seen celebrating in the background. The Ukrainian army released pictures of residents of Kherson dancing around a bonfire and singing the patriotic song "Shervona Kalyna".
Around 200 police officers were sent to Cherson to erect roadblocks and "document the crimes of the Russian occupiers," said police chief Igor Klymenko. He warned residents about the explosive devices left behind by Russian forces. A police officer was injured during a mine clearance in an administrative building in Kherson. According to police, a woman and two children were also injured in an explosion near their car in the village of Mylove in the Kherson region.
According to the Ukrainian police, people in the Berislav district of the Kherson region were "dead and wounded" as a result of Russian shelling.
Around nine months after the start of the war, Moscow had ordered the withdrawal from Cherson and the north of the region of the same name in view of the progress of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. The Russian army evacuated the regional capital on Friday morning. In the evening, Zelenskyj declared that Cherson belonged to "our people" again.
The withdrawal represented a bitter defeat for Russia. Cherson was the only regional capital that the Russian troops had captured. For Moscow, the region is also of great strategic importance in order to be able to continue the offensive in the direction of Mykolaiv and the Black Sea port of Odessa.
