The liberation of Kherson by the Ukrainian army was a celebratory event for most of the city's residents, but now, a week after the first Ukrainian soldiers entered the city, the atrocities committed by the Russian occupation authorities, who maintained a regime of terror there, are beginning to be revealed.
In the local market I meet Cedar Aleksandravich, a handsome guy in his twenties, while he is waiting in line for water, since there is no running water in the city.
"It's hard to describe what we've been through in the last few months. The Russians walked around drunk with weapons drawn and searched apartments and houses. I was lucky, they didn't do anything to me, but my friend and his partner were caught by soldiers when they tried to escape the city. She was raped and he was beaten bloody. They left them in a field outside the city and one of the soldiers said to them: 'Here, look, now you are safe,'" says the young man with a blank expression.
The Russians looted everything when the Russian occupation forces were in the city, looting became an integral part of everyday life.
Cedar Aleksandrevich waits in line for water in the Harson market, photo: Ojak Maria York
In an electrical goods store empty of products I meet Yevgeny Antonchuk.
He is waiting for the chain to which his store belongs to start delivering products, so that he can fill the empty shelves.
"The Russians harassed us from day one," he says.
"We refused to accept rubles because we are a Ukrainian chain - and they responded by looting. Drunken soldiers came in and took cell phones, televisions and washing machines. Some of them broke in through the window and stole electric kettles. They took them without the base that allows you to connect them to electricity, I don't know if they did It's evil or stupidity, probably both together," says the seller with a sad smile.
But looting is far from the worst part of the Russian reign of terror.
A tip from neighbors who told us that during all the months of the occupation they heard the screams of tortured people, led us to a police station that was used by the Russians as a detention center and torture center.
Outside the building, we meet Vitaly Grigorovich Serdiuk, a 65-year-old resident of Kherson, who came as a free man to the place where he was tortured with unimaginable cruelty.
Whoever made a mistake in the anthem - was beaten
"My son serves in the Ukrainian army and I look after the house for him," Vitali said.
"In August, the army raided the house and arrested me while I was working in the garden. They tied my hands, put a sack over my head, threw me into a truck with other detainees and took me to a place I didn't know," says the older man, tears beginning to well up in his eyes.
"I was housed with six others on the second floor of the building. Every time a guard entered we had to stand up and shout 'Glory to Russia, long live Putin'. Anyone who didn't shout was beaten to death. Every day we had to stand and sing the Russian national anthem, whoever got the words wrong He was severely beaten. The prisoners who knew the words wrote them on the wall so that we wouldn't be beaten," says Vitali.
Vitali Serdiuk in the cell where he was held, photo: Ojak Maria York
"It was routine in detention, but the torture was horrific. They took me to a small room in the basement and put a bag over my head. They asked me where my son hid guns, and who my contact in Ukrainian intelligence was. I had no idea what to tell them, since none of this Happened in reality. So they started beating me, first with a stick, then with clubs. They forced me to stand up, and every time I managed to stand up - they beat me hard until I fell. 'We will make you remember,' they kept telling me. When they stopped the beatings, they tied me up An electrode to my leg and they electrocuted me. The current was probably not very strong, but it hurt so much, and every time I screamed they only increased the current," says Vitali, bitterly crying.
We enter the compound with Vitali.
All the evidence of the brutal acts is still there: the clubs, the blood stains, even the Russian national anthem written on the wall of the detention room.
Vitali says that he was lucky.
"I was released after three hellish days, but there was a guy with me who was there for three months. Others were detained for a longer time and experienced much more horrific torture, which I don't even want to mention," he says in a whisper.
His wife who is next to him hugs him.
A sister's hug
We leave the building in silence, which is located in the heart of a peaceful civilian neighborhood, and before us we will discover a heartwarming sight.
A fighter in the Ukrainian artillery corps who returned from the front for the first time since the liberation of the city, throws a huge hug at her sister, whom she hasn't seen in almost six months.
All those gathered in the street shed a tear.
The name of Katya, the soldier with the blonde dreadlocks, goes before her.
The soldier Katia and her sister meet in Harson, photo: Ojak Maria York
She was a partisan, joined the army as a fighter and is considered a legendary sniper in the southern combat sector.
Vitali, letting go of his personal horror for a moment, manages to smile through the tears.
"No matter what they do to us, we fight for our family and our home. And it's simply stronger than anything they have."
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