Themes by tag: Kherson

Before facing the brunt of Russia’s invasion, The Jin Roh Circus Studio & Entertainment has been running in Kherson for 15 years. The war caught its members in their hometown. In the chaos, they sought basic necessities like food and medicine, often taking refuge in makeshift shelters. Remarkably, one of the studio’s halls transformed into a bomb shelter, providing safety to around 40 individuals during the tumultuous early weeks. As Russian forces tightened their grip on Kherson, civilians faced escalating repression, prompting many, including Jin Roh’s students, to flee. Even the studio’s founder and director, Roman Vashchenko, was compelled to leave to evade capture.

Since the city’s liberation in November 2022, Vashchenko has returned, dedicating himself to rebuilding the studio’s activities. However, the journey back to normalcy is fraught with challenges. Once bustling with 300 students, Jin Roh now sees a fraction of that number attending classes to 2-8, with safety concerns looming large amidst continued shelling by occupying forces.

For reference: Kherson fell under Russian occupation at the onset of the full-scale invasion on March 1, 2022. It wasn’t until November 11, 2022, that the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated the city from Russian control. Despite this liberation, the occupiers persist in regularly shelling the city.

• children
• culture
• Kherson

Volodymyr Sahaidak is the director of the Children’s Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation in Kherson Oblast. With the outbreak of a full-blown war and the occupation of the area, he and staff moved to the Center in their care for 52 orphans. According to Volodymyr, the occupiers tried to take the children from Ukraine to Russia under various pretexts, including allegedly being abducted to undergo “rehabilitation”. However, the staff of the institution hindered their plan’s progress. Volodymyr hid the orphans, leaving them in the care of different people: his relatives and the Center’s staff. Later, the children were secretly transferred to the territory controlled by Ukraine: a unique story was devised and even documents were forged to pass the enemy-controlled checkpoints. 

Now the Children’s Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation building has been empty, all the children have been successfully evacuated. Most of them are either with extended families or in foster care willing to provide support for them.

Volodymyr Sahaidak lives in the Kherson region and is ready to talk to the news media representatives, both offline and online.

• children
• occupation
• Kherson

On November 24, at 6 am, Russian troops struck Kherson, and a children’s library was destroyed as a result of a direct hit. No people were injured during the shelling, but the library building was seriously damaged.

For reference: On November 12 this year, Russians fired at another library in Kherson–the Oleh Honchar Regional Library.

• russian crimes
• Kherson

Heorhii and Olha Chervienkovs founded a cannery in Posad-Pokrovske, Kherson region, 9 years ago. Before the full-scale invasion began, the plant’s output was more than 100 tons of canned goods per month. When the start of the full-scale invasion started in 2022, the russians occupied Kherson region and destroyed almost all the villages on the front line.

Heorhii and Olha found out that their cannery had been destroyed already after the de-occupation of their town and their return home. Entrepreneurs set to work and six months after the de-occupation, Heorhii and Olha managed to launch the first production line. At first, they had to use power generators to work, and there was a shortage of workers, as some employees had joined the army or left the community. Currently, the couple is working to return the plant to its pre-war capacity.

• occupation
• reconstruction
• Kherson

Building shelled, employees pressured, and more than 10,000 of the most valuable exhibits looted by the occupiers are what the Shоvkunenko Kherson Regional Art Museum has experienced since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia.

It was a few days shy of the de-occupation of Kherson (November 11, 2022) that the museum heist was committed by armed Russian occupiers under the slogans of “preserving cultural property.” The artifacts were taken as plunder to the occupied Crimea. The identification of the missing items is currently underway.

Apart from that, the occupiers hit the museum building twice: in November 2022 (windows were smashed, and the facade was shattered) and in April 2023.

Journalists can send a request to arrange interviews and filming in the museum.

For reference: Before the full-scale invasion, the museum’s collection included nearly 14,000 pieces of art.

• culture
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kherson

Before the full-fledged invasion, Inna Yakovenko dealt with selling windows and doors. The businesswoman runs two trade pavilions in the village of Novovorontsovka in the Kherson region. At the outbreak of the full-blown, the woman’s village remained the only Ukraine-controlled one in the Novovorontsovka community. However, the settlement has come under Russian strikes hitting nearly every day for 7 months. Inna lived in the basement throughout August 2022, because of the nonstop shell rains. The heavy bombardment damaged the trade pavilions where Inna was selling. So, after the Ukrainian military liberated the community, the entrepreneur chose a new path and set up a granite dust block production facility to help rebuild dwellings for villagers who had begun to return home. Now she plans to scale up production to create as many jobs as possible.

For reference: November 11, 2023, marks the one-year anniversary of retaking Kherson. Also, during last year’s counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated some districts of the Kherson region and part of the Mykolaiv region on the right bank of the Dnipro River.

• casualties
• women
• Kherson

Oleksandr Knyha has been the director of the Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater named after Mykola Kulish for over 30 years. He is also an honorary citizen of Kherson and a member of the regional council.

At the beginning of Russia’s all-out invasion, Oleksandr ended up being in Russia-occupied territory. On March 23, 2022, the Russian military arrested him. After interrogation, they released him, but a few days later they came to the theater to force Oleksandr to cooperate. The man began to look for ways to flee life under occupation. He managed to escape on April 1, 2022.

After all he has been through, he did not quit his favorite occupation. While in the Ukraine-controlled area, he was preparing the annual Melpomene of Tavria international theater festival, which had previously been held in Kherson.  And later he launched the theater in evacuation.

Meanwhile, the occupation authorities appointed a man who used to be a security guard at the theater in Kherson to the position of the director. They even “renamed” the Mykola Kulish Theater to the Russian Academic Theater.

After Ukraine forced retook Kherson on November 11, 2022, Oleksandr and some of the actors came back to their hometown. Despite enemy shelling, the artists work in a sheltered art hub. Oleksandr, along with other residents of the Kherson region, had to face the consequences of the flooding of his native land due to the occupiers’ blowing up the Kakhovka HPP dam. His house was underwater in the occupied flooded town of Oleshky.  

Journalists are welcome to talk to Oleksandr offline or online.

For reference: November 11, 2023, marks a year anniversary of the Kherson liberation from the Russian occupation. Also, during last year’s counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine regained some districts of Kherson region and part of Mykolaiv region on the right bank of the Dnipro River.

• culture
• occupation
• Kherson

12 years ago, Yuliia Roshchenko opened her own business together with her husband. In the village of Chornobaivka, Kherson region, the woman created a copy center where fellow villagers could make copies of documents or print out the necessary papers. After the start of russia’s full-scale invasion, Yuliia spent the night printing “Children” signs for cars so that those leaving the occupation could try to prevent russian attacks on their families.

Later, the occupiers came to the copy center and demanded that Yuliia and her husband print russian documents, as well as photos for russian passports. The couple refused even though the enemy threatened them with weapons. Because of the threat to their lives, Yuliia’s family went to the west of Ukraine, where they stayed until their native village was liberated by the Ukrainian military. After returning, the couple received a government grant to start the copy center again.

• occupation
• women
• Kherson

Larysa is a graduate in law originally from Kherson. She learned about the full-scale invasion of Russia when traveling in Mexico. She immediately started looking for ways to return home. Larysa managed to get to Ukraine just in the days of the Russian occupation of Kherson. In May 2022, she traveled to the Russian-held city and took her family, friends, and those willing to leave for the territory controlled by Ukraine.

In the Kyiv region, Larysa joined the volunteer movement and dismantled the rubble of buildings destroyed by the war. She lived with the idea of a similar reconstruction project to be implemented in her hometown. So, after Ukraine regained control of Kherson on November 11, 2022, Larysa returned home and became the coordinator of the Dobrobat volunteer movement in the region. Larysa and her team cleared rubble and rebuilt homes. Local volunteers call Larysa “mom” for her dedication and care for people.

Journalists are welcome to talk to Larysa both offline and online.

For reference: November 11, 2023, marks the one-year anniversary of retaking Kherson. Also, during last year’s counteroffensive in southern Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated some districts of the Kherson region and part of the Mykolaiv region on the right bank of the Dnipro River.

• reconstruction
• volunteers
• women
• Kherson

Anton Tenyk has been engaged in farming for the past 5 years. He runs a farm in Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine. Since the Armed Forces of Ukraine de-occupied the right bank of the Kherson region, farmers have decided to get back to work. However, it has proved to be an uphill struggle, as most of the fields were contaminated with mines. Ukrainian military and sappers were clearing these areas of land mines, and Anton and other farmers did not stand aside: they used handheld mine detectors to detect shell casings and mortar shells. When pinpointing an unknown object, they seek professional help.

The farmers turned to their colleagues and charitable foundations for help to get fertilizers, seeds, and diesel fuel. Anton says that overcoming the odds, they managed to sow 800 hectares of sunflower, 400 hectares of barley, and 150 hectares of peas. Now the man is trying to employ all those who return home to the liberated regions of Kherson.

• demining
• Kherson