The cardiology center in Kherson is located on the right bank of the Dnieper, close to the river. On the other side is the enemy – the Russian army. Rockets and artillery shells are fired at the city daily. Occupiers have attacked the hospital, where patients with heart disease are treated, six times since mid-November.
From our special correspondents – Chief physician of the center, Oleh Mazurjak, sits on the second floor of the building in a room that no longer has any windows. Instead of glass, there is chipboard in the openings. Light enters the room only because the door to the balcony is open. And the sounds of artillery fire can be heard from outside. Both Russian from the opposite bank and Ukrainian.
“We are doing everything in our power to maintain care for the patients who need us. But it is an onslaught on physical and mental strength. In one bombing, the Russians hit the gas distribution that we have on the premises, one shell penetrated the wall into the hospital. It’s terrible that drones with bombs are being launched here. Fortunately, volunteers deliver us medicine, we have supplies from Switzerland and Italy. We can afford to give patients medicine for free. We got new generators from the Netherlands,” recounts the seventy-five-year-old man, who, according to his words, lives and works in Kherson as a doctor for fifty-two years.
A hospital in Kherson where heart patients are treated. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
The whole city lives under fire. It thunders almost all the time, Russian shells often arrive between midnight and two in the morning. Of the original pre-war population of 330,000, around 50,000 now live here. It is often older people and seniors who need cardiology help.
At the same time, there were also few doctors and nurses left. “Some went to Odessa, Kiev or abroad. I don’t judge them for that, it’s hard to live here now. But unfortunately there were also traitors and collaborators in our collective who collaborated with the Russian occupiers. Ukraine gave them education, everything, and they betrayed it . A doctor who fled after the liberation took my place. And with her several other doctors and staff members. They simply left with the Russian soldiers,” says Oleh Mazurjak.
Collaboration and betrayal is one of the big themes of contemporary Kherson. People are asking for punishment for those who collaborated with the Russians, but many of them defend that they were mainly trying to survive. Most of those who were heavily involved in favor of the occupiers left. A 58-hour curfew was in effect in cities from May 5 to 8. The army justified it with an operation against collaborators who direct Russian fire and transmit information to the occupiers on the left bank of the Dnieper.
Aktuálně.cz reporters are accompanied to the hospital by a head nurse. The gas pipeline is covered with sandbags, the windows are boarded up everywhere, and the bricklayers have already repaired a large grenade hole on the third floor. “We are trying to improve at least something. Look at the garden, we have planted flowers. At least a little joy,” the head nurse points to the flowers in the hospital grounds.
Photo author: Aktuálně.cz
Aktuálně.cz reporters in Ukraine
Aktuálně.cz reporters Martin Novák and Jakub Plíhal travel through southern Ukraine and bring reports directly from Kherson, which has been occupied for months, the Dnipro under fire, or Zaporizhia.
It is dark in the rooms where the patients lie, but they receive the necessary care. “Glory to Ukraine,” an elderly woman who is currently receiving an infusion greets us in the room with a smile.
Highway to Hell
While Kherson was occupied by Russian troops for eight months, the town of Posad-Pokrovske, thirty kilometers away, was the front line. The Russians reached its edge, but most of it was defended by the Ukrainians. After the shelling, not a single roof here is in order, everything is shot up. The road here looks like a highway to hell – almost all gas stations are shot and deformed by intense fire.
But even here, something is turning for the better. Demining squads are working full time. There are machines that cut the grass and at the same time have a protective plate to stop the mine from exploding. Two men are repairing a power pole a short distance away and do not want to be photographed. “We don’t have helmets, so we don’t follow safety regulations,” one of them says with a laugh.
Among the abandoned houses, one can be seen showing signs of life. Mrs. Oksana lives in it. She explains that her sister lives in the Czech Republic with two children. They say thank god for that. “As you can see, I don’t have a roof, but I hope there will be one for the winter. They turned on my electricity three days ago, I still don’t have water,” he says in front of the house.
It is not a problem to come across people here who have something in common with the Czech Republic. In Kherson, at the marketplace, a cyclist suddenly brakes when he sees our e-bike. “I worked for eight years in the Czech Republic,” reports Mr. Vasil. He says he can still speak Czech because he watches Czech films on YouTube. “I like comedies, I like those Czech jokes,” he adds.
A man who worked in the Czech Republic is standing on the street in Kherson. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
“Like we’re sitting on a bomb”
Vasil lived in Kherson during the occupation and does not have a good word for the Russians. “They’re a bunch of thieves. But I’m confident that we’ll win and drive them out of everywhere. Count on it 110 percent. If we have weapons from Europe and America, they won’t stand a chance.”
On the western outskirts of the city, Vladimir Zatulin lives in a house with a garden with his dog Lucky. His son Pavel used to work in the Czech Republic. “We still had a small cabin on the other bank of the Dnieper, but the occupiers destroyed everything there and set up positions there. I believe that we will also liberate the territory on the other bank. I have friends there and I am in contact with them. They are in a difficult situation,” he points out.
He himself has bad memories of the occupation. “Goods began to be imported from Crimea and were terribly expensive. Then we were left without electricity, water and gas. Now we have everything, but we are still being shelled again. We all live here as if we were sitting on a bomb.”
One of the worst Russian attacks took place here on May 3. The fire of the occupiers killed twenty-three people in several places in Kherson. But the dead and wounded are reported every day, every night. “The only thing we can do is hold on, work and hope that one day it will be better,” says chief physician of the cardiology center Oleh Mazurjak.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyi visited liberated Kherson (11/14/2022)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi visited liberated Kherson. | Video: Associated Press
