The Russians have occupied Kherson since March 2. And gradually the city begins to turn into a copy of a Soviet city. Lenin, immortalized in metal, is back on pedestals. At each mast floats the tricolor mop, which the locals call “Aquafresh” [à cause des couleurs – blanc, bleu, rouge – du drapeau russe], and which they are actively trying to suppress. Since an unknown cyclist removed the enemy flag hoisted near the Eternal Flame [le monument aux morts de la Seconde Guerre mondiale]the mast is guarded by an entire unit of Russians on armored vehicles.
But what upsets the inhabitants the most is to see the red flags with the hammer and sickle, the frescoes which represent the Kremlin and the republics of the USSR, as well as the ribbons of the “Colorado beetles” [le ruban russe de Saint-Georges, orange et noir, que les Ukrainiens associent à ce coléoptère]. These attributes of the past contrast with the expressions of the patriotism of the inhabitants.
Looting of agricultural equipment and crops
The invaders hastily rid the city of Ukrainian national symbols, they destroy the kurgans [tertres artificiels recouvrant des sépultures] millennia of the Scythians, the books of the history of Ukraine. The Russians knocked down the monument to the Celestial Centuria [nom donné à la centaine de manifestants tués lors de la révolution de février 2014] in the center of Kherson and the one dedicated to the inhabitants of the region who fell in battle during the first phase of the Donbass war [2014-2021].
They deliberately take us back not to the Russian Federation, but to Stalinist Russia. They deprive the “kulaks of the XXIe century” of food, they destroy their businesses and their vineyards. The occupants take away the agricultural equipment, which can then be found in Chechnya. Joseph Vissarionovitch [Staline] would have something to be proud of his successor who intends to create a Holodomor 2.0 [“Holodomor” est le nom donné en Ukraine à la famine artificielle de 1932-1933] which today threatens not only Ukraine, but also Africa and part of Europe. 400,000 tons of cereals were exported from the occupied territories. The “rachists” [contraction de “russes” “fascistes”] appropriate the crops.
In the city thus returned to the Soviet era, a large