Why are the Russians destroying Kherson, which they once came to “protect”. The worldʼs leading media about the war on January 14

Having once called Kherson a Russian city, Russia is now obsessed with its destruction, writes The Washington Post in a report from the regional center, which is constantly under attack. During the first few days after the liberation of Kherson by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, there was euphoria in the city, but now you can rarely see people on the once-crowded central Svobody Square, and only a few of the surrounding cafes are open ― and even their windows are boarded up with chipboard. The journalists visited the maternity hospital ― the last one in the city where there were conditions to give birth. The day before, it was fired upon, and the team of doctors was saved only by the fact that they hid from the shelling not in the basement, but in the corridor. The explosion badly damaged the basement ― as well as one of the wards for newborns, where only a few charred cots remained. Fortunately, no one died ― however, pregnant women with whom WP journalists spoke prefer to give birth in safer Mykolaiv. And many leave at all so that their children do not witness what Russia is trying to do to the city. According to the interlocutors of the publication, now about half of the people left in Kherson with a pre-war population of 300,000 ― often the locals left the city on the same trains that hundreds of Kherson residents joyfully came to reunite with their relatives shortly after the deoccupation of the city. Now they call the once cozy and prestigious riverbank street "The Road of Death" ― shelling happens there so often that cars practically do not drive on it, and there are almost no intact buildings left either. 79-year-old Valentyn Ivchenko lives on this street and sees the Russians, who have dug in on the other side of the Dnipro River, from his window. He himself also came under fire: the man managed to hide behind a public transport stop, but shrapnel hit his hand. For several weeks now, he has been treated in one of the local hospitals, and when asked about his current life in Kherson, he answers: "We were very happy to be liberated and thought that the horror was finally over. But it turned out that this is not the end yet." One of the doctors worried about Ivchenko lives right here in the hospital: his apartment is on the dangerous eighth floor. He goes there only once a week to make sure the apartment still exists. Locals are divided in their opinions as to why the Russians do not stop attacking the city: some believe that it is blind revenge, while others are wary that by hitting hospitals, in particular, the occupiers are preparing the ground for a possible second attack on the city. One way or another, the publication concludes, the strikes on Kherson testify to one thing: the Russians donʼt care about life of anyone in Ukraine. After all, just a few months ago, during the comical and illegal annexation of the region, Putin called all local citizens of Russia, whom he would finally protect. Now Russia is killing them.