Ikhor stands on rubble in a parking garage in the city of Kherson that he says was hit by Ukrainian artillery after he and other resistance fighters spotted Russian military vehicles. (Ed Rahm for The Washington Post) Comment on this story Comment KHERSON, Ukraine — Ihor didn’t even know the name of the person who contacted him. The man said he was a member of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces and wanted to know if Ihor was interested in helping fight the Russians who had taken over the city of Kherson. “Sign up,” Ihor replied. For months, the two maintained a coded communication through the Telegram messaging app. Sometimes Ihor was called upon to help locate positions from which the Russians were firing artillery. At other times, he sent the man, who asked to be called Smoke, about Russian troop positions, armored vehicles and ammunition stocks. Then in August, Ihor had a more dangerous task than Smoke. There was a cache of weapons hidden somewhere in Kherson, and Ihor had to bury them in a different location and wait for the signal. Eventually, Smoke told him, Ihor might be called upon to take one of the guns and help Ukrainian soldiers if the battle for Kherson turned into street fighting and small sabotage teams would be necessary. “Around the city, there were a lot of people with guns waiting for the right moment to use them,” Ihor said. He declined to give his last name out of concern for his safety, and Smoke asked to be identified only by his call sign because of his work in special forces. During more than eight months of Russian occupation, an underground resistance movement has formed in Kherson, the only regional capital Vladimir Putin’s army has been able to capture since launching its invasion last February. Stories of brave Ukrainian citizens standing up to invading soldiers were widespread throughout the war. But Kherson, which has been occupied since early March, has been a unique hub for resistance activity where many civilians have been working in close coordination with operatives from the Ukrainian security services. Help from inside the occupied territories – at times beyond the range of Ukraine’s missiles and artillery – has proved instrumental for Kyiv in carrying out some of its most brazen attacks, including an airport in Crimea, which the Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. In Kherson and the occupied city of Melitopol, about 140 miles to the east, there were mysterious explosions during the war that killed or injured Russian-settled authorities. These explosions are believed to be the work of insurgents, also known as partisans, or Ukrainian special forces working behind enemy lines. Sometimes, bombs exploded in the cars of occupation officials or in their homes. Witnesses recount detentions, torture, disappearances in occupied Kherson People often did not know which of their neighbors or colleagues were also resistant. In interviews, two members of the resistance claimed that they managed to kill some drunken Russians who were walking alone in the streets by stabbing them. These claims could not be verified. But for the most part, the insurgents were given nonviolent assignments, resistance fighters and military officials said, such as hiding weapons or explosives in a specific location, identifying collaborators or reporting on the base of Russian soldiers and their materials. This information was then used to direct Ukrainian artillery fire. In Kherson, it all added up to a tenuous insurgency backed by Ukraine’s military as the southern front edged ever closer to the city, eventually forcing the Russians to retreat last week. With the city of Kherson now free of Russian soldiers, the resistance movement rises to the surface. In the main square this week, Smoke, wearing a balaclava, ran up to Ihor and hugged him tightly. “The main thing for me is that people stayed alive,” Smoke said. “That worried me the most. But they survived and, thank God, that’s the most important thing.” There was a moment when Ihor wasn’t sure he would. There was another person he and Smoke were working with who was also tasked with burying weapons, Ihor said. This man was caught by the Russians and, after being beaten, finally left the location where he was supposed to meet Ihor. Then Ihor was also arrested, he said, and spent 11 days in August in a detention center where Russian guards tortured their prisoners. Visiting liberated Kherson, Zelensky sees “the beginning of the end of the war” As Ihor returned to the prison for the first time, escorted by Washington Post reporters, he fought back tears. Tatiana, a 74-year-old woman who lived next door to the detention center, said she heard men screaming every day. “I never wanted to see this place again, but coming back like this is kind of funny,” Ihor said. Some people standing outside asked Ihor if he had been kept there. “I was in there too,” said one man. “Who wasn’t?” Ihor answered. Because Ihor was still in contact with Smoke, who was based out of nearby Ukrainian-controlled Mykolaiv, the Russians released him and said they would monitor any text messages between the two. They asked Ihor to send screenshots of their conversation every time there was an update – and threatened his life if he didn’t cooperate. But Smoke and Ihor had agreed on a discreet code that could act as a warning – for example, replying to a message with “ok” instead of “okay”. Ihor took risks after that. In September, he noticed that the Russians had placed several transport trucks in a car park near the center of Kherson. Ihor walked past the building with a phone to his ear, pretending to be on a call while his camera recorded what was inside. Two days later the place was hit by artillery. Several resistance fighters told The Post they had reported the location, which helped the Ukrainian armed forces confirm it was a worthy target. A member of Ukraine’s special services, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said he acted as a handler for multiple informants during the occupation, which required assessing what each could do. . A person with a car could drive around and mark troop and weapon locations. Another overlooking a main road could report the movements of the Russians. “If, for example, a bridge or an important communication hub, such as power lines, is blown up, then this may have been done with our help,” the operator said. “We are talking about valuable equipment, not only armored personnel carriers, but command and staff vehicles, communication vehicles, air defense or electronic warfare,” added the operator. “Destroying what is expensive and available in small quantities can weaken the Russians and give a certain tactical advantage to our armed forces in certain parts of the front.” Some members of this internal resistance trained and prepared before the Russian invasion – just in case, the operator said. The loss of the city of Kherson defeats Putin’s war aims in Ukraine Others were unlikely partisans, like Irina, a 58-year-old woman who worked for the local government. Iryna, who declined to give her last name out of concern for her safety, had contacts with the SBU, Ukraine’s main internal security agency, and regularly provided them with information about how the occupation authorities were organized and who was working with the Russians. They also had their own code. At one point, she even sent a message to her daughter in Bulgaria to forward to her handlers. One day, some men Iryna described as “competitors” came to her house and asked to bury some things in her yard. She agreed, covering the spot with tomatoes. When Russian soldiers searched her home, she claimed she was just a woman helping to cook meals for the neighborhood. Her acquaintances at the SBU visited her earlier this week and dug up what was buried in the yard. “They told me it was all about making explosives,” he said. Some of the resistance was more public, but for psychological effect. An organization called Yellow Ribbon regularly painted sites around the city – marking Russian facilities with a yellow ribbon symbol or the Ukrainian letter “i”. They target Russian banks, places where Russians distributed passports and where ballots were prepared for the referendum on Russian annexation. The Russians would cover the color, but the Yellow Ribbon would mark it again. The organizers pointed to the house of Kirill Stremousov, a notorious Moscow-based official in Kherson, who recently died in a car accident. They defaced Russian billboards proclaiming that “Russia is here forever” or that “Ukrainians and Russians are one.” And they posted pictures of “partners” eating at a restaurant around town or walking down the street. “Then everyone started walking around with bodyguards after that,” said the Yellow Ribbon organizer, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety. One goal, he said, was to mislead the Russians about the resistance around them. Sometimes people would take a photo of two Russian soldiers walking from behind, and then Yellow Ribbon would post it on their Telegram channel, with a warning: “We’re watching you.” In one of the posters put up in the city Yellow Ribbon made a reference to HIMARS, a weapon system that the United States provided to Ukraine. “If HIMARS can’t reach you,” the poster read, “a party will.” Understanding the Russia-Ukraine conflict See 3 more stories
