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File:Protests against Russian occupation of Kherson.png
Protests by residents of Kherson against the Russian occupation of Kherson city in early March 2022

After capturing Kherson, Russia began a military occupation of the city and surrounding region.[1] They suppressed protests by locals by force.[2][3] On 22 March, the Ukrainian government warned Kherson was facing a "humanitarian catastrophe" as the city was running out of food and medical supplies and accused Russia of blocking evacuation of civilians to Ukraine-controlled territory.[4][5] The occupying forces committed numerous human rights violations against the populace, including torture and arbitrary detentions.[6][7]

On 23 March, Ukrainian forces launched counterattacks against Russian forces in Kherson Oblast.[8][9] A senior US defense official claimed that the Russian forces no longer had full control of Kherson as the Ukrainians fought "fiercely" to recover the city. CNN, however, reported the situation in the city remained unchanged, citing residents confirming Kherson was under full Russian control.[10] Ukrainians in Kherson also "questioned the Pentagon’s assessment, saying that the city remained in Russian hands".[11][12]

According to Kolykhaiev, speaking immediately after the battle, the battle led to the deaths of around 300 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and severe destruction of the city's infrastructure.[13] He also said that bodies were being buried in mass graves, and that many remains were unrecognizable.[13][14] Kolykhaiev described the impact on citizens in the city, stating that many remained in their homes and in bomb shelters during the battle. He also claimed that schools and high rise buildings were damaged by the fighting, while residential buildings were being fired upon by Russian forces. Kolykhayev also claimed that on 1 March, Russian soldiers shot citizens who were armed with Molotov cocktails.[15]

On 25 February, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, claimed that Russian forces murdered a journalist and an ambulance driver near Kherson. Venediktova stated that Ukrainian law enforcement had opened criminal proceedings into the shootings.[16] Ukrainian officials alleged that beginning on 27 February, Russian forces began moving civilians from nearby villages towards Kherson, attempting to use them as human shields.[17]

The Ukrainian government also said that Russia had taken "heavy losses" during the battle.[18] In May 2022, Valentyna Romanova, a writer for the European Consortium for Political Research, published that Ukraine sustained 300 military losses during the battle, with the entire Ukrainian defense force at Kherson being shot and killed amid the fighting.[19]

Treachery and collaboration

In November 2023, Gilbert W. Merkx, a professor at Duke University, along with the United States Marine Corps University, published an article in the Journal of Advanced Military Studies and in Project Muse, where it was stated Russia captured Kherson with "little resistance". Merkx also stated that Russia planned and attempted to execute an amphibious landing assault on Kherson as a second offensive axis, but was stopped by the Ukrainian coastal defenses in the early stages of the invasion.[20]

After Kherson was captured by Russia, questions about how it was captured so easily were asked by several people.[21][22][23] Orysia Lutsevych, a member of the Chatham House think tank stated that "...Russia had its agents infiltrated into the Ukrainian security forces..."[22] On April 1, 2022, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy dismissed the head of the SBU's Kherson regional branch as well as another general in the region as traitors. Zelenskyy described their actions as that of "anti-heroes", and that he "...had trouble determining where their Fatherland is".[22][21] An aide to one of the generals was also arrested for handing over minefield maps to Russian forces and helping coordinate Russian airstrikes in the region.[21][22]

Significance

El País described the battle as "Ukraine’s worst defeat in the war".[24] Kherson also has symbolic significance, as it was the first major city and the only oblast capital captured by Russian forces during the full-scale invasion.[13][25] Strategically, Kherson has been described by analysts as "a gateway to Crimea", and offers control of the Dnieper river to the side that controls it.[25] On 2 March, just after Kherson was captured, there was a measured spike in bots on Twitter (now 𝕏) in pro-Russian hashtags, including #IStandWithPutin.[26] On 4 March, there was a measured spike in bots promoting the pro-Ukrainian hashtag #IStandWithUkraine, which the Australian University of Adelaide believed to have been Ukrainian authorities countering Russian authorities in propaganda.[26]

  1. ^ Kaparulin, Yurii (30 May 2023). "Eyewitness Account of the Nazi Occupation in the South of Ukraine: Diary of a Kherson Resident". Eastern European Holocaust Studies. 1 (1). De Gruyter Oldenbourg: 215–239. doi:10.1515/eehs-2023-0018. Retrieved 5 December 2023. On February 24, 2022, the Russian army launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine. Military units assembled in the South entered Kherson from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The Russian army established control over the city on March 2, after weeklong skirmishes approaching the city. Over the nine months that followed, Kherson was under Russian occupation until its liberation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on November 11, 2022.
  2. ^ "Russian soldiers fire on Kherson protesters". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Ukraine says Russian forces violently disperse Kherson protest". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  4. ^ Zinets, Natalia; Prentice, Alessandra (22 March 2022). Heritage, Timothy (ed.). "Ukraine says 300,000 people are running out of food in occupied Kherson". Reuters. Archived from the original on 22 March 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Medicine shortages and Russian army searches: life in occupied Kherson". France 24. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  6. ^ "Russian military abducts, tortures people in Kherson region". www.ukrinform.net. 4 April 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  7. ^ Davies, Caroline (31 May 2022). "Ukraine war: Stories of torture emerging out of Kherson". BBC News.
  8. ^ Williams, Nathan; Waterhouse, James (23 March 2022). "Ukraine changes the narrative". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  9. ^ Williams, Nathan (23 March 2022). "Where are Ukrainian Forces Fighting Back?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 March 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  10. ^ Cooper, Helene (25 March 2022). "Russia is not in full control of Kherson anymore, the Pentagon says". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  11. ^ Cooper, Helene (25 March 2022). "Conflicting reports emerge on whether Russia is still in full control of Kherson". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  12. ^ "Russian Military Remains in Full Control of City of Kherson, Residents say". CNN. 25 March 2022. Archived from the original on 26 March 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  13. ^ a b c Schwirtz, Michael; Pérez-Peña, Richard (2022-03-02). "First Ukraine City Falls as Russia Strikes More Civilian Targets". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  14. ^ James, Liam (2022-03-03). "Russian Claims it has seized Kherson as City's Mayor Agrees to Curfew". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference railcap was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ "Journalist shot Dead by Russian Occupiers in Kherson Region". www.ukrinform.net. 27 February 2022. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  17. ^ "Russian Invaders Plan to use Kherson Residents as Human Shield". www.ukrinform.net. 28 February 2022. Archived from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference loses was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Romanova, Valentyna (May 2022). "Ukraine's resilience to Russia's military invasion in the context of the decentralisation reform". ResearchGate. Stefan Batory Foundation. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.32756.83840. Retrieved 8 December 2023. The example of the territorial defence in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, is probably the most telling. The Ukrainian armed forces had been protecting Kherson oblast since the Russian invasion, but they were defeated on 2 March 2022. Still, the territorial defence unit – up to 300 military personnel – continued to defend the city when the Russian army entered Kherson in tanks. The entire Kherson territorial defence unit was shot in battle by the invaders.
  20. ^ Merkx, Gilbert W. (November 2023). "Russia's War in Ukraine: Two Decisive Factors". Journal of Advanced Military Studies. 14 (2). Marine Corps University and Project Muse: 13–33. Retrieved 28 November 2023. The Russian spearhead north toward Kherson and Melitopol from Crimea was more successful. Russian jets took out the Ukrainian air defenses in this area. Both Kherson and Melitopol were captured with little resistance, and the larger city of Mariupol was largely encircled.
  21. ^ a b c Associated Press / CNBC staff (18 December 2022). "The Rapid Fall of Kherson : A key Ukrainian city leaves unanswered questions". CNBC. Associated Press (AP). Archived from the original on 19 November 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  22. ^ a b c d "Kherson's Rapid Fall at Start of Russian Invasion leaves Unanswered Questions". Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  23. ^ "Ukrainians question the Ease of Russian Capture of Kherson". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  24. ^ Segura, Cristian (2022-10-25). "Russian troops preparing for urban combat in Kherson as Ukrainian army advances". Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  25. ^ a b "Ukraine war: Why is control of Kherson so important?". 2022-11-08. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  26. ^ a b Smart, Bridget; Watt, Joshua; Benedetti, Sara; Mitchell, Lewis; Roughan, Matthew (12 October 2022). "#IStandWithPutin versus #IStandWithUkraine: The interaction of bots and humans in discussion of the Russia/Ukraine war". International Conference on Social Informatics. 2022. University of Adelaide via Springer Nature: 34–53. Retrieved 7 December 2023.