Continuous shelling, early spring and empty city: how Kherson lives today

Kherson now does not resemble the city the world saw immediately after the liberation from russian occupiers. At the beginning of November, the city was filled with smiles, Ukrainian flags, flowers, and incredible energy.

After months of living under continuous shelling, Kherson resembles a ghost town. Empty streets, almost all shops are closed, and sometimes there are more dogs than people on the streets.

Kherson is quiet, and you can't hear the sound of cars or people. There is only the singing of birds, the shelling of the russians, and the response from Ukrainian artillery.

There is smoke in the distance, and the direction is clear — it is coming from the currently occupied Oleshky. We get a taxi and rush to the embankment, where a panorama of the left bank in flames opens up.

The Dnipro reedbed is burning. We have to act fast because the positions of the russians are several kilometers from there.

And the streets are empty again in the very center of the once bustling city.

We enter a hair salon on central avenue. Rubryka already visited it in November — that's when we met Svitlana. At that time, the craftswoman could not work because there was no electricity or water in the city. Svitlana said that during the occupation, she switched to speaking Ukrainian and was ashamed that she made mistakes.

Today, she is confident and offers coffee, speaking fluent Ukrainian about life and work.

We return along the same central avenue, and the city streets are just as empty. Crows caw at the blinding sun. Despite everything, spring is coming to the city.