War returns to Kherson as hundreds of civilians remain in Oleshky

By Rostyslav Averchuk

Lviv (EFE).- Explosions have returned to Kherson after a nearly six-day ceasefire around nearby Oleshky ended, with drone strikes hitting the southern Ukrainian city for a third consecutive day and hundreds of civilians remaining opposite it on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro.

«This short pause wasn’t really enough to recover morally,” psychologist Emma Khutkovska told EFE from Kherson, moments after an explosion sounded close to her home. “Either a drone struck something, or it was intercepted,” she said.

At least 10 people have been wounded in the renewed attacks on Kherson, where some 50 thousand residents continue to live under near-constant threat from drones and artillery.

A new shock

After almost four years of daily strikes, Khutkovska and other locals had developed routines to reduce the risks: staying away from the most dangerous districts, leaving home only when necessary, and using anti-drone nets strung between buildings and trees for cover.

The restart of the strikes after the ceasefire ended, although expected, still came as a shock to many locals who had to adjust again after seeing this tentative equilibrium upturned.

Yevhenia Karpenko spent a recent night fully dressed and unable to sleep, listening for explosions and ready to run to a basement if they got nearer.

«Prior to the ceasefire, we were already used to the danger and sometimes didn’t even pay that much attention to it,” the woman wrote in her blog.

Karpenko, who follows local social media channels that report the arrival of Russian drones in real time, said their number has increased compared to the period before the ceasefire.

An increased threat

According to Ukraine’s 34th Marine Infantry Brigade “Borysfen,” Russian forces used the ceasefire to bring in fresh forces, weapons and ammunition into Oleshky and nearby areas.

«We saw the arrival of both manpower and various equipment, including drones and heavier weapons,” the brigade’s spokesman Yevhen Voronetskyi informed through official army communication channels.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed the assessment, which contradicted Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who coordinated the humanitarian mission and said Russia had used equipment only to de-mine approaches to the city.

Voronetskyi warned that Russian forces will try to use the current cloudy and foggy weather to intensify cross-river incursions by sending infantry in boats to the Ukrainian-controlled areas.

According to Voronetskyi, his unit has resumed the search for newly arrived Russian soldiers who, he previously explained to EFE, launch daily strikes against Kherson from Oleshky and use its remaining civilians as a human shield against Ukrainian counter-strikes.

Hundreds still in Oleshky

Over a thousand locals may still remain in Oleshky, deputy head of Kherson regional administration Oleksandr Tolokonnikov said, while Ombudsman Lubinets declined to give a figure.

Residents who spoke to Ukrainian media said some didn’t seize the chance to leave out of fear of detention by Russian forces because of family ties to Ukrainian soldiers or lack of documents. Others were too frail to leave, or remained to care for relatives who could not move.

According to Lubinets, Ukraine has already received additional requests to evacuate those with limited mobility and will ask “the Russian side” to evacuate them.

Ukraine has also addressed the Russian side about the possibility of evacuating Alla Lykhman-Malysh, who has been informing about the situation in Oleshky through her social media.

The woman is currently being treated in Oleshky’s badly damaged hospital after the wound she received while stepping on a mine during a walk to a nearby village for food. For months, Lykhman-Malysh has been looking after 70 abandoned cats and dogs.

In a prior comment to EFE, she said she wouldn’t leave without them. The humanitarian mission didn’t have enough capacity to take all the animals, Lubinets confirmed, yet the war has returned for the residents on both sides of the Dnipro with renewed drone attacks.EFE

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