The entrance to the city of Kherson, which was liberated last week from the Russian army, resembles a street carnival, under the constant thunder of artillery. At the entrance to the city, local children are waiting holding Ukrainian flags and asking those entering the city for the entrance password, chanting patriotic slogans and generally looking excited to meet strangers after almost nine months of closure.
The city was occupied by the Russian army in the first days of the war, and despite strong local protest, the Russians established an occupation regime that meant isolation and deprivation for the city's residents, which lasted more than nine months.
Residents roam the streets and gather at humanitarian aid distribution points.
There is no electricity or running water in the city and everywhere the citizens carry large containers of water for drinking and bathing.
Most of the shops are closed, but locals with an entrepreneurial spirit are already operating stalls selling food and other consumer products.
In the city center, citizens wait in a long line to charge their mobile phones.
The limit is half an hour of fast charging for a citizen.
Every few minutes an explosion of artillery in the distance startles those standing in line.
Singing and celebrating in the city center, photo: Reuters
"The liberation was a dream", photo: AP
Despite the difficulties, citizens in the street approach the soldiers and journalists, thank them and insist on expressing their joy at the liberation of the city and the hope that normality will soon return after months of difficulties and fear.
Irina Godin, an elderly resident of the city, stops me in the street and insists: "I know our situation looks miserable, but we are so happy to be freed and that the nightmare is over."
Serhei and his wife Zhana are residents of Kherson, who returned today after fleeing it minutes before the Russians arrived.
Serhei, an army officer, and Zhana, a police officer, knew their lives were in danger if they didn't leave.
"I left my elderly mother behind and joined the army. We fought here in the area, mainly around the town of Senhorivka. I lost a lot of friends and relatives, I can no longer remember how many," Sarhei says.
"But the release was like a dream, I didn't stop crying all day, I couldn't wait to get back here," says the officer with moist eyes.
"could you hear pain"
But out of the tremendous excitement, a picture also emerges of the horrors experienced by the residents during the months of fighting.
Oleg, who lives near a detention center in the city, says that the Russian forces entered the facility in the first days of the invasion, and since then he has seen a parade of civilians being forced into the place with their eyes covered.
"Almost every day I heard the screams of people who were subjected to horrific torture, it was terrible. The Russians forced them to shout 'Glory to Russia' or 'Long live Putin', you could hear the pain in their cries," he says.
Outside the city, the devastation caused by the Russian invasion and the eight months of fierce fighting is palpable.
Near a bombed out bridge I meet Valera and Pablo, who win together to clear the ruins of the bridge and prepare it for restoration.
The two work for a local company and came from western Ukraine to participate in the project.
"It will take us years to restore everything they destroyed for us here. But we are happy to take part in the rebuilding of Ukraine. We are not afraid of hard work and we cannot be discouraged. If the world helps, we will win the war and destroy everything in a few years."
Indeed, there is a lot to restore.
The landscape outside the city looked like a tornado of shells had been raging through it for months.
Rows upon rows of houses with blown roofs, bullet holes and trenches dug in every corner.
The gas stations and eateries on the sides of the roads stand sooty and locals wander around with carts trying to salvage anything of value from their destroyed property.
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