For Ukrainians rooting out Russians in south, patience pays
By Scott Peterson and Oleksandr Naselenko | September 13, 2022The Ukrainian sociologist-turned-guerrilla fighter believes that the liberation of his southern city of Kherson is only a matter of time.
The first city to fall to Russian troops after their February invasion, Kherson has in recent weeks heard the explosive rumble of the Ukrainian military as it slowly advances to end six months of Russian occupation.
Days of street protests that first greeted the Russian presence – and were suppressed with violence – gave way, he says, to carefully calibrated resistance action that has sabotaged Russian military capacity and claimed the lives of some 20 pro-Russian officials, in Kherson and other occupied towns.
“They feel that the walls are watching them,” says the resistance fighter, who asked not to be further identified, for his safety. He says he is on a Russian wanted list, is trained in laying mines and setting explosives, and has moved 25 times since the occupation began.
“From what we hear in the [Russian] intercepts, they are so eager to escape from here,” says the sociologist/fighter.
That is the result of methodical, patient perseverance on the part of the Kherson resistance to undermine the Russian occupation. A key was striking a balance between doing harm to Russian invaders – by creating conditions that will weaken any Russian pushback to the Ukrainian assault – and not inviting severe retaliation.
“For several months we had an order not to touch [Russian troops] at all, to not provoke sanctions against the civilian population,” says the guerrilla.
Those days are over. . .
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2022/0913/For-Ukrainians-rooting-out-Russians-in-south-patience-pays
