For nearly nine months, the people of Kherson, Ukraine, had been living under Russian occupation, with countless families forced to live without basic means including food, running water, and electricity. But after Russian troops suddenly announced a retreat from the city on Friday, scenes of joy have brought a reprieve from the brutality of the war.
Videos and images quickly began flooding social media, showing Ukrainians taking to the streets to celebrate a rare moment of peace in southern Ukraine, where the fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces has been especially intense. The liberation of Kherson comes as a critical blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who just last month had declared Kherson among four Ukrainian regions to have been annexed into Russia “forever.”
One especially poignant video clip shared online by Myroslava Petsa, a Ukrainian journalist working for BBC News, showed a grandmother weeping with joy at the sight of her grandson, a Ukrainian solder:
The moment a grandmother kneels before her grandson soldier who’d been fighting for Kherson liberation. pic.twitter.com/f6JkBiPmMD
— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) November 12, 2022