Even simply speaking Ukrainian in occupied Kherson was dangerous ― it could end in torture in the basement. This is what the residents of the liberated city assure the correspondent of the American public broadcaster NPR, who published an article about what the city had to experience during the time when it was controlled by Russia. "People almost didnʼt go out ― only to buy basic things like food," Maryna Zinevych, a 54-year-old native of Kherson, shared with the correspondent. "We were under constant pressure, under constant stress." According to her, collaborators who tried to manage the occupied city were constantly spying, trying to identify patriotic Ukrainians, who then ended up in numerous rooms or buildings for torture. One of these premises is located literally across the street from Maria Kryvoruchkoʼs house ― it is the building of the police station right next to the Antonivsky Bridge. In the summer, when the windows in the house were open, Kryvoruchko heard the terrible screams of people ― especially at night. However, the Ukrainian underground was active in the city, the NPR journalist assures, citing the Yellow Ribbon movement as an example. Its representatives painted yellow and blue flags and posted patriotic leaflets in the city wherever they could. Now both the representative of the movement, who called himself Igor (this is not his real name, because the guy still conducts several operations undercover), and the local people interviewed by the journalist feel like winners who have withstood a difficult confrontation. Current problems do not frighten them. Yes, the conversation with Kryvoruchko was interrupted by a loud explosion. "Donʼt worry," the woman didnʼt even flinch. "Itʼs outgoing [so itʼs ours]."
Features of Putinʼs behavior when he reports all the failures in the war, not him, but someone else, is devoted to the article on the Associated Press. The journalists of the news agency are surprised: in the week when Russia lost the right-bank Kherson region, Putin spoke about the bankruptcy of companies and the problems of the automobile industry, about investments in Siberia, about the new president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, about commemorating the Second World War. About anything, but not about the Russo-Ukrainian war and, in particular, not about Kherson, about which Putin once assured that "this city is with us forever." On the other hand, if Russia is successful in at least one aspect of this war, Putin immediately informs about it personally. AP asks Russian political analyst Dmitriy Oreshkin to explain why this is happening. He assures that this is a tradition that dates back to Stalinʼs times: the leader, or, more precisely, the "vozhd", is incapable of making mistakes. "Putinʼs system is built in such a way that someone else is to blame for all defeats: enemies, traitors, global Russophobia ― whatever you want," says Oreshkin. "Therefore, if Putin loses somewhere, firstly, it is not true, and secondly, it is not him." Russians believed in this, until Russiaʼs defeats in Ukraine became permanent. In order to somehow improve the situation, Putin attacks the Ukrainian civil infrastructure in response to defeats at the front. To at least present something as a "victory" and return peopleʼs admiration for themselves, the publication concludes.
"One thing is clear: Ukrainians do not want any negotiations now," Putinʼs press secretary Dmitriy Peskov said recently. And he has never said anything truer." This is how the article on Politico about the fact that now Ukrainians really do not want any negotiations with the Putin regime or Putin personally begins. Unlike, for example, in March, when the Ukrainian delegation communicated with representatives of the occupiers in Belarus or Turkey. Now, after numerous victories at the front, the government does not need it. And after the atrocities seen by the Russians in Bucha and Izyum, after the new facts of torture in the newly liberated Kherson, after the attacks on civilian infrastructure, which plunged Ukraine into darkness and forced surgeons to perform operations by the light of flashlights, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian civilians do not want this either. At least, everyone with whom the author of the article spoke, the head of the European division of Politico, Jamie Dettmer. Yulia, an immigrant from Mariupol, gave him this answer. "The Russians cannot understand that no matter how many missiles they fire at us, we will not give up and we will not go to negotiations. And they will not divide us," she answered. The men, whom the author happened to talk to in a parking lot in Lviv, were of the same opinion: "They want negotiations now, so that they can attack with new forces later. Any deals with the Russians are not trustworthy. In order to live peacefully in the future, Ukrainians only need victory," answered one of them, and the rest nodded in agreement. The event encourages the Ukrainian authorities to show that they are ready for negotiations. Recently, Zelensky outlined 10 prerequisites for dialogue with Russia, which include the complete liberation of Ukrainian territories, payment of reparations, guarantees that in the future Russia will not interfere with Ukraine in any way. In other words, as Dettmer writes, it means "Nuts!". Exactly the same answer in 1944 during the Ardennes operation, American General Anthony McAuliffe gave to the suggestion of the Germans to surrender. Only then were the Allied forces virtually surrounded by a brief but successful German counteroffensive. Now the Ukrainians are not surrounded at all, and they have even less reason for compromises.