KHERSON, Ukraine — The road to Kherson, scattered with burnt-out tanks and vehicles, at one point stops being a functional road due to a collapsed bridge, requiring a hastily constructed dirt track. The post-apocalyptic scenery around Ukraine's recently liberated city is unsurprising considering that until about a week ago, this area of otherwise unremarkable countryside was amongst the most fiercely contested pieces of land on earth. Almost every building on both sides of the road shows some sign of damage from the fighting. At least half of them are totally destroyed.
James Rushton,Michael Weiss, Yahoo NewsKHERSON, Ukraine — The road to Kherson, scattered with burnt-out tanks and vehicles, at one point stops being a
In the exceptionally flat surrounding fields, numerous Russian 220mm rockets, fired in salvos of 16 from Russian BM-27 “Hurricane” multiple rocket launchers, have embedded themselves in the earth, pointing skyward like lethal scarecrows. Depending on the exact muntion fired, each rocket can scatter as many as 312 antipersonnel landmines or 30 cluster bombs, leaving the surrounding farmland saturated with unexploded ordnance that will likely take years, possibly decades to fully clear.
The music did little to drown out the sounds of outgoing and incoming artillery in the relatively near distance, but it did little to dampen the carnival atmosphere in the square. Local residents, having lived with the sound and fury of modern warfare for the past nine months, seemed entirely unworried by the relatively continuous crump of Russian shells landing and the sharper retorts of Ukrainian return fire.
The city’s power, water and heating systems are almost entirely out of service, destroyed by the Russians as they retreated. Evidence that Kherson was until recently an unwilling part of what Russian President Vladimir Putin considers his dominion is everywhere. Countless large billboards display Russian propaganda advocating a “yes” vote in the staged referendum, and expounding the benefits of “rejoining” Russia. Many have now been defaced or destroyed, but many that remained out of the reach of the locals remain intact.
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