On November, 11, Ukrainian troops liberated the right-bank part of Kherson oblast, including the Oblast center. Since then, stabilization measures have continued in the de-occupied territories, aimed at restoring critical infrastructure that the occupiers were deliberately destroying during their retreat. It is not easy to do so under incessant shelling.
Before The Escape: Russians Plunder And Destroy Critical Infrastructure
The russians began to prepare for the retreat (and, therefore, to take out the loot) in advance. The occupiers stole Kherson's communal property, leaving the city without ambulances and city buses. They pulled out seats and stereo systems from police cars. They took away the cultural treasures, plundering the art and local history museums. "We have the preliminary estimates that about 80% of art pieces had been stolen from the art museum, and a large collection from the museum of local lore," said the Minister of Culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko.
The occupiers stole from Kherson the monument to Potemkin and his remains, and dismantled the monument to Suvorov, which was removed in an unknown direction. They robbed the zoo, where a raccoon was stolen from. According to the founder of the organization UAnimals, Oleksandr Todorchuk, most of the zoo collection was taken to Crimea: from llamas and wolves to donkeys and squirrels. The occupiers looted the vault and bank safe boxes in one of PrivatBank's branches. In addition, russian marauders stole a children's train from Kherson, household appliances, including washing machines, as well as toilet bowls, construction materials, and more.
However, russians not only looted but also deliberately destroyed critical infrastructure to make life as difficult as possible for local residents who never loved the occupiers. Before the retreat, the CHPP was blown up and the transformer substation, which provided power supply to the right bank of Kherson and a large part of Mykolaiv region, was completely destroyed. They completely destroyed three main power lines that fed Kherson, blew up the water utility and boiler house in Kherson. Because of this, the city was left without water and heat supply.
Locals were left without mobile and Internet connection. The equipment and towers of mobile communication of Ukrainian operators were dismantled and removed by the occupiers. One of the buildings of the television center in Kherson was blown up. According to the Institute of Mass Media, the explosion occurred at the transmission center of the Kherson TV tower; the TV tower itself survived.
Stabilization Measures: How The Recovery Of Infrastructure Runs
The city is now home to 70 or 80 thousand people. Stabilization measures include restoring electricity, heat, gas and water supplies; restoring mobile communications and the Internet; clearing areas and roads, and deploying humanitarian aid centres for Kherson residents.
Demining activities. Head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration (RMA), Yaroslav Yanushevych, in his address, emphasized that the enemy had mined almost everything, and recommended that the Kherson citizens not gather in crowded places while demining activities are in progress.
As of November, 21, the SES and the police have already cleared several critical infrastructure facilities, in particular, the railway station in the city of Kherson and railway tracks between Mykolaiv and Kherson. About 80 experts working in 26 units of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, in addition to 10 National Police units, are involved in the demining effort. In total, since the de-occupation of the right bank of the Kherson region, deminers have made 435 trips and neutralized almost 2,500 explosive objects.
However, according to the Deputy Head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kherson oblast, Oleksandr Bondarenko, unfortunately, the process of complete demining may take many years to come.
According to the estimates of "Khersonoblenergo", which they voiced on November, 17, it will take from 14 to 21 days to return the electricity to the city. To do this, they had to restore the power line that was coming from Mykolaiv. However, the power engineers coped more quickly. According to the information of the Kherson RMA, as of November, 21, the power returned to 29 settlements of the liberated territory of Kherson Oblast. As soon as on November, 26, the power was resumed in Kherson. According to the deputy head of the President's office, electricity was first supplied to the critical infrastructure sites in the city, such as to hospitals, and then to household consumers.
The restoration of water supply also depends on the availability of electricity. On November, 21, Kherson Vodokanal water management facility reported on Facebook that the company was resuming their operations. At the same time, the company said that due to the lack of electricity, the water supply in the municipal network is also absent. At present, drinking water is delivered by the city in water tanks. People take service water even from the puddles.
Work is in progress to restore gas supply to the liberated territories. Currently, specialists of Khersongaz JSC, together with colleagues from other oblasts, are carrying out repair work on gas pipelines destroyed by active hostilities in the liberated part of Kherson oblast. According to the company, in the first days after liberation, it was possible to restore the delivery of natural gas to more than 300 places, and the speed of repair work is impacted by the demining of the liberated areas. In addition, the company reported that in Kherson they manage to maintain a stable situation with gas supply, which is especially important in view of the lack of electricity and water supply in the city, and the cold weather coming.
Gradually, operators bring back the mobile communications to the liberated territories. They also recover lost SIM cards and provide free minutes and mobile internet for residents of the liberated areas. In particular, such promotions are offered by Kyivstar, Vodafone and lifecell. 210 Starlink satellite terminals were sent to Kherson to restore the Internet. It was informed by the Minister for Digital Transformations, Mykhaylo Fedorov.
Also banks began to restore their operations in the city, the first gas stations and supermarkets returned. Ukrposhta, Nova Poshta, and Rozetka, some car salons, resumed. On November, 19, the first passenger train from the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion arrived in Kherson from Kyiv.
Addressing Humanitarian Challenges
Humanitarian aid centers have been deployed in the liberated territories of Kherson oblast since November, 19, where Kherson citizens can get food, hygiene products and other necessities, free of charge. There are also six "Unbreakable (Resilience) Points" where you can warm up, get hot drinks and meals, charge your phone, and access the Internet. Four of these points are located in Kherson.
The delivery of humanitarian aid has been established. According to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the first days after the de-occupation alone, more than 25 tons of food kits, 26 pallets of food stuff, and 3 tons of hygiene products were sent from the humanitarian headquarters in Mykolaiv to Kherson Oblast. Assistance was also received from Poltava Oblast, Odesa Oblast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Rivne Oblast, and Kyiv Oblast.
In the liberated territories, the payment and delivery of pensions for November continues according to the schedule.According to the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Kherson region, as of November, 22, UAH 1,169.7 million were allocated for pension payments. UAH 886.7 million will be paid through banks, another UAH 283 million — through the Ukrposhta branches.
As for schools, there are currently 157 remotely operated schools in Kherson Oblast. More than 65,000 pupils are studying under the Ukrainian curriculum in the Oblast. First Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Andrii Vitrenko, told on the air of the national telethon that after the stabilization measures, certain schools will be able to work not only online, but also in a hybrid format.
He also announced that the teachers who went to collaborate will have their work contracts terminated. According to him, cases of teachers' collaboration with the occupiers are now documented by the relevant law enforcement agencies.
Searching for Collaborators and Documenting the War Crimes
30 mobile groups of prosecutors who record war crimes are already working in the liberated territories. This was reported by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andrii Kostin, during a briefing held in Odessa on November, 14.
According to Kostin, now prosecutors work under 16 "underlying" criminal proceedings. Investigative actions are carried out in the de-occupied territories of Beryslav and Kherson districts, as well as in Kherson city. A coordination headquarters has also been established for interaction between different law enforcement agencies.
In total, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General, 44,869 crimes of aggression and war crimes have been registered since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.Of these, 43,312 relate to violations of the laws and customs of war, 73 - to planning, preparation or unleashing and waging aggressive war, 39 - to war propaganda, and 1,445 to others. Although the published data does not contain information on the distribution of these crimes by Oblast, the Kherson Oblast Prosecutor's Office informs about the registered proceedings on their website. For example, on November, 21, law enforcement officers reported that they conducted exminations in four premises where, during the occupation of the city, the occupiers illegally detained people and severely tortured them.
There were also 18,741 reported crimes against national security.Of these, 12,730 — on encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, 1,834 - high treason, 3,245 - collaborative activities, 281 — assistance to the aggressor state, 64 — subversive action, 619 — others. The pretrial investigation of these cases under the procedural supervision of the prosecutor's office is administered by the Security Service of Ukraine.
Currently, the Kherson Regional Department of the Security Service of Ukraine is actively investigating cases related to collaborative activities. Thus, during the stabilization measures in the dismissed Kherson, the SSU officers found classified documents of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, which contain information about their collaborating agents. Recently, the SSU reported that according to the exposed materials, it was established that the enemy collaborators gave a "tip-off" to the occupiers on the places of stay of Ukrainian patriots, in particular, members of the resistance movement in the southern region. Also, agents of the Russian secret service engaged in the illegal prosecution of local residents under the falsified "criminal cases". The SSU also actively exposes and detains persons who helped the occupiers organize a pseudo-referendum, who "forced out votes" to support joining the region to the Russian Federation, or helped the enemy "evacuate" to the left bank of the Dnieper River.
This publication was prepared within the framework of the project "Civil Society for Ukraine's Post-war Recovery and EU-Readiness", which is implemented with the financial support of the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of the Civil Network OPORA and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
Anatoly Bondarchuk for ZN.UA