A resident of the south Kherson city of Ukraine says her city has been like a “zombie apocalypse” since the Russian military takeover.
The woman who requested to be identified as Tanya, said in an interview on CNN International that the invasion took physical and psychological damage.
“It’s hard to live in such conditions, physically, because you can’t do the things that you did before the war,” she said. “You can’t go out much, you can’t breathe fresh air, so it’s physically difficult.”
“Psychologically, it’s even harder because you see all the empty shelves in the stores, you see all the armed people walking beside you, on the street, and it’s terrifying because They’re around the city. So it’s hard,” she continued
The new Russian-installed leadership in the Kherson region of Ukraine today announced the plan make a formal request become part of the Russian Federation.
“The authorities of the Kherson region will appeal to the President of Russia with a request to bring the region into Russian territory,” according to a statement on a new Telegram channel linked to the pro-Russian administration.
Tanya said she was afraid of Russian soldiers patrolling the city and that no one she knew wanted to be part of Russia.
“I don’t know anyone who wants to join Crimea – as part of the Russian Federation. I don’t know any people in Kherson, just talk to them on the street, they don’t want to be part of the Russian Federation. ; they saw what they did,” she said.
Tanya said that many people had already left the city and it was pretty empty by 3pm local time.
“It looks like a zombie apocalypse; there’s no one here. In the morning there were a lot of people but now I see that our city is sadly dying,” she said. .
The woman told CNN she wanted to leave the city – like many of her friends – but that was difficult because there were no official evacuation corridors and dozens of Russian checkpoints.
She said the city’s train station has been dormant since the Russians took over the city, and the Russian military is now using it as a base.
