liberation

Last Friday, Ukrainian forces managed to enter Kherson for the first time since the Russian forces occupied it last March.,

Last month, Moscow declared the city the Russian administrative capital of the Kherson region, following the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions to the Russian Federation last September.

At the time, Russia claimed that almost all of the city's population supported the move. But once in the liberated southern city, the BBC discovered that people in that city were breathing a sigh of relief - after several months in which they had succumbed to the terror of the occupying forces - and proud that they could once again raise the Ukrainian flag without fear.

A citizen carrying a trumpet and blowing on it at the highest podium stood in front of the government buildings complex in downtown Kherson, and the Ukrainian national anthem was played, and passers-by joined him, individuals and groups chanting the words of the anthem