On November 22, Russian troops again shelled the Kherson region. The invaders hit the region with cluster shells, killing a 13-year-old boy.
Two more children, aged 10 and 13, were seriously injured. This was announced by the head of the Kherson regional military-civilian administration Yaroslav Yanushevich.
According to Yanushevich, Russia killed a 13-year-old boy in the Kherson region the day before, who was driving with his father in a car from the church: there the family was hiding from shelling.
The child was seriously injured by a cluster projectile used by Russian terrorists in the region. The boy died at night in the Kherson Regional Clinical Hospital.
Two more children were injured the day before.
“Another boy just ran from the summer kitchen to his home, he was left without an arm. Another boy was wounded in the stomach. They continue to attack and beat peaceful people,” Yanushevich said.
“On November 22, as a result of enemy shelling in the city of Kherson, two boys aged 10 and 13 were injured,” added the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
The Russians continue to kill and maim children in Ukraine in the course of a full-scale war.
As of November 23, 2022, more than 1,279 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation. According to the official information of juvenile prosecutors, 438 children died and more than 841 were injured of varying degrees of severity.
In Ukraine, 1,886 settlements have already been vacated. This was announced in the Office of the President of Ukraine the other day. They also added that most of the efforts are currently directed at helping the residents of Kherson region.
The enemy used different types of mines: from the so-called PFM-1 “petals” and TM-62 anti-tank mines to various types of anti-personnel mines.
Over the last day, about 19 hectares of territory were examined and 137 units of explosive objects were neutralized. But in total, about 9,000 square kilometers have been deoccupied, which must be checked and cleared of mines.
This was reported by the press officer of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine Oleksandr Khorunzhy.
“The situation in Kherson region is very difficult. We are working with energy and utilities to establish a life support system. First of all, to give electricity. But the enemy mined the territories so densely that it is not so easy to do it,” he said.
Only yesterday, 93 pyrotechnicians and 39 pieces of equipment were involved in demining. Over the last day, about 19 hectares of territory were examined and 137 units of explosive objects were neutralized. An area of about 9,000 square kilometers has been deoccupied, which will need to be checked and cleared of mines.
“In fact, Kherson Oblast has now become the main direction of demining and the work of our pyrotechnic divisions… There are cases when one square meter needs to be spent on demining for an hour. And it is true that there are such mine clearances… The enemy used different types of mines here: from the so-called PFM-1 “petals” and TM-62 anti-tank mines to various types of anti-personnel mines. All this was used in the complex. We find many such mines under power lines, in fields. Therefore, the work is not so fast, it took a long time. But we are making maximum efforts to do this work,” he added.
In addition, Khorunzhy reported that since the beginning of the de-occupation of the right-bank part of the Kherson region, the State Emergency Service has already defused more than 5,000 explosive objects and surveyed 393 hectares of territory. We will remind, earlier the adviser to the head of the Kherson regional military administration, Serhii Khlan, reported that the police building in Kherson was blown up due to a large number of mines. The restoration of electricity supply is complicated for the same reason.
Over the past day, law enforcement officers recorded 45 war crimes committed by the occupiers and their accomplices in the Kherson region. It is about shelling, kidnapping and looting. Another traitor was also exposed.
According to the press service of the police of the Kherson region, proceedings have been initiated under Article 438 “Violation of the laws and customs of war” and Article 111-1 “Collaborative activity” of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Shelling
The Beryslav and Kherson districts, as well as the regional center itself and its suburbs, are under constant enemy fire from rocket salvo systems.
In particular, in Kherson, high-rise buildings, infrastructure facilities, main gas pipelines and power lines were destroyed. As a result of the hits, there are dead and wounded, among others, children.
Collaborators
A resident of Kherson was exposed to the enemy at work. During the inspection of the traitor, documents of the occupation “authorities” about the evacuation, a large amount of money in occupation rubles and other evidence of her cooperation with the occupiers were found in her possession.
Consequences of enemy shelling in the Kherson region
The occupiers ransacked 5 kindergartens in Kherson — all their valuables were stolen and taken away.
A resident of Kherson, who was forced to evacuate the city, also contacted the law enforcement officers. He learned that during his absence, the occupiers broke down the door to his apartment, after which an acquaintance of the man moved in there arbitrarily and was illegally using the existing property.
Another resident of Kherson told the law enforcement officers that during the occupation of the city he was attacked by armed militants just on the street. The victim was beaten, 1,600 hryvnias were taken and his passport was torn.
It also became known that during the occupation, the invaders ransacked the premises of the mobile operator company. Communication switching equipment worth about 10 million hryvnias was stolen from the technical and office premises.
Abduction of people
On November 3, enemy militants kidnapped a local resident in the regional center. The man was taken to an unknown destination, there is still no contact with him.
Denys Monastyrskyi noted that 436 proceedings have already been instituted as a result of the detection of the first signs of war crimes by the occupiers, 11 places of deprivation of liberty where civilians were illegally detained were found in the region.
11 places of detention were found in the region, where civilians were illegally detained. In particular, it is known that people were definitely tortured in four of these places.
“The bodies of those who were tortured there are also being exhumed. So far, 63 bodies have been found in the entire territory of Kherson region, but we must understand that the search has only just begun. We understand that the months of stay of Russian orcs did not pass by populated areas and civilians, and therefore many more places of torture and burials of victims of such crimes will be found,” the minister said.
During the retreat from the right bank of the Kherson region, the Russian occupying forces took with them several heads of communities who refused to cooperate with them.
This was reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
The police said that the Russian occupation authorities were hunting people who remained loyal to Ukraine. In particular, activists, veterans of the war in Donbas, former military personnel and law enforcement officers who remained in Kherson or the region during the occupation suffered.
According to the police, the occupiers established a person’s whereabouts and came with searches at any time of the day, and then detained and began to use “all possible illegal methods”: from psychological to physical violence.
“There are representatives who were detained for three months or more. There are those who were taken and taken with them to the left bank and beyond,” said Mykola Verbytskyi, Deputy Chief of Police of the Kherson Oblast.
Currently, the whereabouts of some heads of territorial communities who did not submit to the occupiers are unknown.
The ombudsman told what the Russian occupiers were doing
After the liberation of Kherson, it became known that the Russian military brutally abused the local population. The occupiers tortured people for their pro-Ukrainian position.
The Ombudsman of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, told about one of these cases.
“The Ukrainian Olympic medalist in rowing was tortured in the basement by Russian military personnel with a metal pipe. They beat him for weeks and broke his bones so that he could no longer represent Ukraine with our blue and yellow flag. The worst thing he told me was that it was impossible to stop the torture. They tried not because they wanted to find out information, but because they could not forgive the Khersons for their Ukrainian indomitability,” says Lubinets.
Most likely, it is about one of the medalists of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Then the Ukrainian quartet consisting of Serhiy Hryny, Serhiy Bilouschenko, Oleg Lykov, and Leonid Shaposhnikov won the bronze award.
Before leaving Kherson, the Russians prepared in advance – already at the end of October, they began to appropriate Ukrainian culture. The armed forces, with the help of Crimean museum workers and local collaborators, began to remove exhibits from Kherson museums.
Now the art and local history museums are left with nothing but bare walls and empty funds. the Russians took several large cars with the most valuable collections to the occupied Crimea. After the liberation of Kherson, museum employees who did not agree to work for the Russians returned to their workplaces, where they were greeted by empty exhibition halls. Security guard Anatolii Matvienko looks fascinated at the ancient amphora behind the museum display case “It’s scary how they robbed” Security guard Anatolii Matvienko looks fascinated at the ancient amphora behind the museum display case. This is one of the few exhibits of the Kherson Regional Museum of Local History that survived the Russian robbery. Many exhibits were not so lucky.
Anatoly Matvienko remembers that day well. This was his shift. There was one more of his colleagues in the museum – security guard Anatoly Yatkevich, as well as the head of the farm, who helped the Russians take out the exhibits. “It’s terrible how they robbed. It seems to me that the Germans would not have done such a thing,” says Matvienko emotionally. The local history museum was looted for two days. The “expropriators” arrived for the first time on October 24. According to the guards, the buses brought seven dozen people from Crimea. The “power support” for the robbery, presumably the FSB, pointed machine guns and ordered the guards, they said, to sit down and not disturb. “And we went for a walk with the boxes all over the territory. Like ants: some packed, others grabbed everything,” says security guard Anatoliy Yatkevich.
He assumes that there were two women from the Crimean museum in the group, because they were consulted about which exhibits to take away.
The Russians said that the exhibits were being taken from Kherson to Crimea, they say, to protect them from the shelling of the Armed Forces, and would be returned after “recalculation”. Four large cars with taped license plates were taken out of the local history museum for “re-registration”. Besides, not everything went exactly there.
“The FSB hid in their cars. Their commandant arrived and said: “Put everything in the car, because it will end badly for you.” They mostly stole something from the car,” recalls Anatoliy Matvienko.
In addition to the amphorae, he especially regrets the collection of ancient weapons that the museum exhibited.
“When the weapons were taken away, it was at least a cry for me. I sat like that – squeezed my soul. I know that it will all be stolen. You won’t show it to your children anyway, you won’t show it to anyone in the future. And then they will drunkenly show someone somewhere: “You see, I brought an artifact from Ukraine.” These are not people at all, but natural animals. My heart ached as they took me away,” says Mr. Anatoliy.
Stolen paintings
The Kherson Art Museum named after Oleksiy Shovkunenko is located next to the local history museum. The Russians didn’t just leave him either.
“Almost 90% of the museum’s collection was taken away. If we had 13,500 museum exhibits, then with me, the last export figure I saw was 10,000. And after me there was another removal. I live nearby and I saw it on November 6,” says Hanna Skrypka, a specialist from the accounting and fund storage department.
She stayed in the museum during the occupation and maintained communication with the director Alina Dotsenko, who left for the territory controlled by Ukraine because she did not want to cooperate with the occupiers. Hanna Skrypka says that the Russians with the occupation authorities entered the museum on July 19, forcibly took the keys to all the funds and installed a new “director” – Natalya Desyatova. Before that, local museum workers had not heard anything about her. Director of the Oleksiy Shevkunenko Kherson Art Museum, Alina Dotsenko
Current director Alina Dotsenko says that Desyatova was only known as a singer from the Teatralne cafe. Hanna’s home was searched because they were looking for electronic media with information about the museum fund. They didn’t find it – Skrypka hid them in a safe place.
On November 1, when the Russians were looting the museum, Skriptsa was allowed to go inside. Armed men helped to remove valuable paintings and office equipment.
“These are two days of complete horror, when not only strangers, but also their own employees committed treason,” says a museum employee.
The art museum had a rich collection of works of art of the XVII-XX centuries. the Russians took away, in particular, valuable icons of the 17th century, paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky, Oleksiy Savrasov, Konstantin Makovsky, Vasyl Poenov, Mykhailo Zhuk, and August von Bayer.
“A very big tragedy”
If the management of the art museum did not agree to work for the Russians, then the director of the Kherson Regional Museum of Local History, Tetyana Bratchenko, agreed to cooperate. The Prosecutor General’s Office has already announced that she is suspected of collaboration.
“She was a member of the Party of Regions.” I had no doubts that she would cooperate with the Russians,” says Mykhailo Pidgainy, a former employee of the nature department. He retired in 2020, but still heads the trade union, which was actually in opposition to Bratchenko even before the occupation.
The same employees who worked at the museum as of March say that after the arrival of the Russians, Bratchenko allowed only those whom she considered loyal to her and the new government to enter the museum. The director did not allow some of the employees to work, saying that there was no need for their services, recalls Viktoria Musienko, a senior researcher of the scientific and literary department.
“She subsequently allowed employees whose views she believed aligned with her new policy to work after a personal interview. Our views did not match,” says Musienko.
She herself left Kherson on May 6. There were rumors among the museum workers that everyone who agreed to continue working was forced to sign a contract to work for the museum’s Russian administration.
Olga Goncharova
Olga Goncharova also left Kherson, she works in the department of modern history, and now she is the director of the museum. Last week, she returned to the city to inspect the museum and record all the stolen exhibits together with the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
“This is a very big tragedy for me. I am familiar with every exhibit they robbed. Every exhibit passed through the hands of the museum staff,” she tells reporters.
The museum had more than 180,000 pieces of exhibits before the occupation. Among the most valuable things stolen by the Russians, Goncharova mentions the gold room, where there was Scythian gold and silver, a lapidary, a collection of weapons that the founder of the museum began to collect, a collection of numismatics. Although the museum is still coming to grips with the scale of the robberies, staff already have plans for the future. Goncharova was approached by collectors who offered to provide their exhibits for exhibitions in the museum.
But first of all, the new director wants to show visitors the empty halls left behind by the Russians.
“They stole the Ukrainian soul”
In the middle of the empty halls of the museum, which have just been sealed by SBU employees, we talk with security guard Anatoly Matvienko in the evening. I ask how he felt when the Russians robbed the museum.
“Pain. As if a person will be shot in five minutes,” says Matvienko.
Anatoly adds that the most valuable thing among the plundered is that “they stole the Ukrainian soul or wounded it very much with this.”
“People brought it in bits and pieces. It’s been years – it wasn’t brought in one day. Somewhere someone went on a trip – brought it, bought it at flea markets – brought it back. It is very painful to watch how you are robbed,” says Anatoliy Matvienko.
Of course, he was happy when the Russians left Kherson, but at the same time his son was wounded near Bakhmut and was hospitalized.
“I had such a feeling in my soul that I would grab the ground and throw it after me,” says Anatoliy about the last day of the occupation.
During the temporary occupation of Kherson Oblast, the Russian occupiers looted the entire technical park, grain and property of a farmer from the recently liberated Velika Oleksandrivka.
During the occupation of the village Oleg Dudka, a local farmer of Velyka Oleksandrivka, left the settlement and only recently returned home after the liberation of the village army from the Rashists.
“Russian soldiers stole all the grain, harvester, tractors and other equipment, as well as most of the property of my house. the Rashists ransacked, pushing residents to leave (about 9,000 people lived in the village before the invasion). Staying to protect what you had could cost you your life.”
In the morning of November 23, Russian troops attacked Kherson, using cluster shells. As a result of the shelling, residential buildings in the Zhytloselishche microdistrict were damaged.
Oleksandr Leshchenko, head of civil protection of the Kherson City Council, announced this.
According to Leshchenko, as a result of the shelling, about ten residential buildings were damaged, and there were no casualties or injuries.
Yesterday, a 13-year-old child was killed and two others were injured as a result of enemy shelling in the Kherson region.
It was also reported that 11 “arrivals” were recorded in Kherson. As a result of the strikes, three people were killed and two more were injured.
During the occupation of Kherson, the Russians looted five kindergartens and the premises of a mobile operator. This was reported by the regional police.
Kindergartens were looted by the occupation administration, and the technical premises and the operator’s office were looted by the Russian invaders
Damages caused to the mobile operator are estimated at approximately 10 million hryvnias. A pre-trial investigation is ongoing.
Earlier it was reported that the police had started an investigation into yesterday’s shelling of the Kherson region.
During the occupation of Kherson, the Russian invaders kidnapped one local resident and robbed another.
This was reported by the regional police. A local resident was kidnapped on November 3. His further fate is unknown.
And another Kherson native was robbed by Russian invaders right on the street. They beat the man, tore up his passport and took 1,600 hryvnias.
According to the facts of violence against civilians, a pre-trial investigation is underway to prosecute all those involved.
On November 22, the Russian occupiers continued shelling the Kherson region, as a result of which 2 people were killed and 10 more were injured.
This was announced by the head of the Kherson regional military administration, Yaroslav Yanushevich.
Yanushevich noted: “In the past day, enemy shelling took the lives of 2 residents of the Kherson region, and another 10 people were injured in various degrees of severity.”
The head of the regional military administration noted that 4 settlements in Beryslav district and 6 in Kherson district came under enemy fire.
In the Kherson region, the Russians shelled Kherson, Bilozerka, Stepanivka, Chornobayivka, Tokarivka, and Zelenivka, and enemy shells were also recorded near Muzikyvka. As a result of shelling, civilian infrastructure was damaged in populated areas. In the Berislav district, the Russian occupiers raided Berislav, Kozatsky, Havrylivka, and Novooleksandrivka. Houses of local residents were destroyed and damaged by enemy shells.