Ukraine’s south has been one of the key targets of Russian invasion since February, and some territories there were occupied during the early stage of the ongoing, full-scale war. Russia claims it controls major parts of southern Ukraine, but this control can be hardly called sustainable.
For instance, in Kherson, the Russians haven’t managed to hold a so-called “referendum”, a forced political action aimed at getting at least some local legitimacy, though they planned to have it as early as April 27. Russia’s intention to introduce their own currency – rubles – for commercial use here didn’t find any purchase.
Kherson has its own Ukrainian life under Russian occupation. Nearly every day, one can read headlines about local collaborators spontaneously combusting in their cars. Some get only slightly injured, like Oleksiy Kovalyov, a former MP with the presidential Servant of the People party. Others are less lucky: on June 24, Dmytro Savluchenko paid for his participation in the Russian so-called “Kherson administration” with his death.
Ukrainian media has been publishing various versions of what’s going on with the Ukrainian insurgency in the south – mentioning local partisans as well as general criminal unrest.
NV interviewed an executive from the National Resistance Center, focusing on the Ukrainian insurgency against the Russian invasion. This is a government-run organization backed by the Special Operation Forces of Ukraine, for supporting those who live in the occupied territories and are willing to fight for liberating their homeland.
