Sheets of paper with the names of missing people hang from trees in Kherson, which Russia has kept under occupation since March.. The largest shopping center in the city in ruins. Local banks are closed, and companies began to pay salaries in Russian rubles. Ukrainians can open accounts in one or two new banks from Russia, but only on the condition that they receive a Russian passport.

Ukrainian mobile numbers no longer work. Therefore, people who have Internet access at home put routers closer to the windows so that passers-by can connect.. Schools are preparing to study under the Russian program. Anti-occupation teachers fired. " “We went back 30 years into the past,” said local blogger Yulia Gladkaya..

Residents of Kherson who were able to leave the city, as well as some of those who are still there, described to The Economist what life in the occupation is like. In September, Russia plans to hold a fake referendum that should consolidate Russian power in the Kherson region and other parts of southern Ukraine.. But the Ukrainian army is destroying Russian military bases and supply lines with artillery, hoping to force Russian troops to retreat.. Meanwhile, civilians are trying to leave the region. Since the beginning of the war, tens of thousands of local residents have done this..

Near a supermarket in the vicinity of Zaporozhye, located 300 kilometers from Kherson, the displaced people stopped to rest after four days on the road.. Volunteers helped an older woman who passed out from exhaustion. Oleksandra, who left Kherson with her husband, daughter and grandchildren, said the Russians began shelling Ukrainian positions as soon as their convoy entered Kyiv-controlled territory.. And at home, the Russians began to move into apartments that the Ukrainians left, fleeing from the occupation.

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Kherson residents say that Russian soldiers, intelligence agents and police loyal to the invaders seized former Ukrainian soldiers and those who were suspected of organizing sabotage. Some of them were put in front of cameras and forced to confess to incredible crimes.. Gladkaya says she saw one of her neighbors on one of the Russian TV channels. He said that allegedly NATO forces and the Ukrainian government taught him to "

The situation is even worse in rural areas.. Vera, who lived in a village in the Kherson region, said that the Russian military searched her house looking for her husband, who served in the army in the past. They threatened to kill her and the children if she didn't tell him where he was.. The woman replied that she did not know. And they believed her. In early August, when Ukrainian shells began to fall on the village, she decided to leave with her mother and two children..

“Shootings happen every day. And it will get even worse, ”said Vera.

In the northern part of the Kherson region, which the Ukrainian army has already liberated, the memory of the occupation is still alive. In the village of Natalino, Russian soldiers cordoned off a group of local men, after which they simulated their execution.

“They asked if the men had served in the Ukrainian army and then started firing over their heads,” said Alina (not her real name)..

Nearby was a minibus that the Russian military stole from Alina's neighbor. It still has a Z on it.. While she was telling her story, she could hear shells exploding somewhere nearby.. The head of the local territorial society, Anna Shostak-Kuchmyak, told the publication that the Russians kidnapped at least 20 local residents during the occupation. Since then, nothing is known about them.. In total, at least 600 people disappeared in this way in the Kherson region, according to Human Rights Watch.. Others suffered from torture.

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“Everyone knows what happened in Bucha. I think when we liberate Kherson, we will hear many more such stories or even worse,” said Alexander Vilkul, head of the military administration of Krivoy Rog..

The Economist writes that it will take time before the Ukrainian army has the opportunity to liberate Kherson. Meanwhile, the guerrilla attacks only intensify.. In the second half of July, rockets blew up a train carrying Russian weapons and military from Crimea.

An explosion on the road killed two police officers who went over to the side of the occupiers. The head of the puppet administration in Kherson fell into a coma after being poisoned. And another collaborator in Nova Kakhovka was shot dead. In Ukraine, they say that members of the resistance movement are involved in each of these attacks..

Locals help the Ukrainian army as much as they can. And sometimes it costs them a lot. A Ukrainian soldier with the call sign " Sometimes such locals are captured by the Russian military. According to "