Key Points
- Critical infrastucture was damaged in Kherson by fleeing Russian forces.
- Authorities are racing to supply homes in the southern port city with water and electricity.
- A ban has been maintained on people leaving or entering the city as a security precaution.
Utility companies in Kherson are working to restore critical infrastructure damaged and mined by fleeing Russian forces, with most homes in the southern Ukrainian city still without electricity and water, regional officials say.
Amid their jubilation, some residents of the city recounted ill treatment by the Russians during their occupation of .
The governor of Kherson region, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said on Sunday the authorities had decided to maintain a curfew and ban people from leaving or entering the city as a security measure.
Residents of the liberated southern city of Kherson gathered in the main square to welcome the Ukrainian soldiers. Source: Getty / AFP via Getty Images
Ukrainian troops arrived in the centre of Kherson on Friday after since its invasion began in February.
The withdrawal marked and the first to involve yielding such a large occupied city in the face of a major Ukrainian counter-offensive that has retaken parts of the east and south.
On Sunday, artillery exchanges echoed over the city but they failed to discourage crowds of jubilant, flag-waving residents bundled up against the cold from gathering on Kherson's main square. The crowds tried to catch mobile phone signals from Starlink ground stations carried on Ukrainian military vehicles.
Residents using internet from the Starlink network, set up by Ukrainian army after the liberation of Kherson. Source: Getty / AFP via Getty Images
Ms Smyrnova said she and her friends had to get water from the river for bathing and flushing their toilets, and only a few residents were lucky enough to have generators that power pumps to get water from wells.
Local authorities said most of the city lacked electricity or water. Yuriy Sobolevskiy, first deputy chairman of Kherson regional council, told Ukrainian TV that even as the authorities were working to restore critical services, humanitarian situation remained "very difficult".
Some of those celebrating on Kherson's main square, however, said the problems paled compared with the joy of seeing Ukrainian troops entering the city.
Kherson was the only regional capital that Russian forces had managed to capture, until their forced withdrawal. Source: Getty / AFP via Getty Images
Ukraine's defence ministry said it had recaptured 179 settlements and 4,500 square kilometres along the Dnipro River since the beginning of the week.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy credited Ukraine's success in Kherson and elsewhere in part to stiff resistance in the Donetsk region despite repeated Russian attacks.
"There it is just hell - there are extremely fierce battles there every day," he said on Saturday.
