area in southern Ukraine
The next “People’s Republic”? How Cherson is swallowed up by Russia
Kherson, Ukraine. A woman with a Ukrainian flag stands in the street in front of Russian troops during a demonstration against the Russian occupation. (Photo from March 19, 2022)
© Olexandr Chornyi/AP/DPA
In Cherson, one can observe how Russia is increasingly trying to erase the identity of the city and its inhabitants. Will the next violent demarcation in Ukraine take place here?
During his campaign against Ukraine, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is apparently having the first border drawn. In people’s heads, in their wallets, in the cityscape, in the administration – and possibly soon officially too, if one can say so.
The war of aggression lasted more than two months. Kherson was the first Ukrainian city to be captured and fully taken by the Russian army after the February 24 invasion. It should stay that way: “The question of returning the Cherson region to Nazi Ukraine is out of the question,” said Kirill Stremusov, who was put in power by Moscow, told the Russian state agency Ria Novosti on Thursday. “That’s impossible.”
Is Russia working on a “Kherson People’s Republic”?
According to the Ukrainian leadership, the occupiers, who see themselves as the “liberators” of a Ukraine ruled by “Nazis,” want to organize a referendum on the proclamation of a “Kherson People’s Republic” in the foreseeable future, modeled on the breakaway regions of Donets and Luhansk, so to speak. Speculations about the preparation of such a referendum – as once on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 – had recently increased. Among other things, leaflets with corresponding calls are said to have appeared in the region.
The secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, described the alleged plans as “legally and internationally meaningless”. The referendum is a “classic” with which Russia wants to legalize its actions – at least from a Russian point of view.
Stremousov from the administration, which is loyal to Moscow, does not explicitly deny that Russia wants to permanently separate the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson from the state. There should be no voting on the status of the region, he said simply. Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko says he has at least “not heard anything” about such plans, as he replied to a question at a press conference last Monday. A clear denial sounds different. The actions of the Russian occupiers speak their own language anyway.
On Sunday, the invaders led Enter the Russian ruble as currency, which is to completely replace the Ukrainian hryvnia after a four-month transition phase. At the same time, all mobile and internet connections in the Kherson region are said to have failed. Ukraine’s Interior Ministry accused the Russian invaders of cutting the lines to cut off residents from the outside world – and thus from independent, truthful information about the war.
Kherson, Ukraine. People shout at Russian Army soldiers during a rally against the Russian occupation at Svobody Square (Freedom Square) in March 7, 2022.
© Olexandr Chornyi/AP/DPA
Instead, as several media outlets reported, Russian state television is running, which reliably informs viewers about the Russian “special operation” – as the war has to be called – and spreads the Kremlin’s old wives’ tales.
For the British Ministry of Defense there is no question that Russia attaches great importance to long-term influence in Kherson. Both the pro-Moscow administration’s announcement that a return to Ukrainian control was impossible and the introduction of the ruble “probably indicate Russia’s intention to exert strong long-term political and economic influence in Kherson.” it said in a statement on Sunday.
The British government also emphasized the strategic importance of Cherson. Permanent control of the city and its transport links will increase Russia’s ability to sustain advances in northern and western Ukraine and secure control of Crimea, it said. Cherson is about a two-hour drive north of the Black Sea Peninsula and is a possible hub for a land bridge to the Donbass, i.e. to the already occupied “People’s Republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk.
“We are the hostages of the Russians”
The resistance of the citizens of Cherson is apparently unbroken, there are always pro-Ukrainian actions, but they break Reports from eyewitnesses and media about an increasingly repressive environment not off.
The letter “Z” – the symbol of the Russian invasion – is being scrawled on buildings, the Russian flag is flying on government buildings, and a statue of Lenin has recently been re-erected, according to a local news agency. Meanwhile, Russian soldiers would drive through the city center in armored vehicles.
Kherson, Ukraine. People with Ukrainian flags walk towards Russian Armed Forces trucks during a rally against the Russian occupation March 20, 2022.
© Olexandr Chornyi/AP/DPA
“We are the hostages of the Russians,” quoted “time online” Cherson’s mayor Ihor Kolychayev, who has refused to cooperate with the Russians since the occupation. The previous Monday, armed Russians occupied the city administration, expelled Kolychayev and replaced the locks and security guards. The next day they installed a new mayor and governor.
According to the report, a former detention center in the city center is said to be holding hundreds of people, including local politicians and activists, who are on Russian lists. According to local information, almost half of the once 300,000 inhabitants have left Cherson.
Routes to safer parts of Ukraine are now completely closed, like that BBC reported on Sunday, citing several people. Accordingly, the only available road leads through Crimea – into Russian territory.
Sources: “New York Times”, BBC, “time online”, Deutschlandfunk, Editorial network Germanywith footage from the DPA news agency