Voice of Ukraine

From Jamie Peipon: People in Kherson have been celebrating all day again today. This has caused a very real danger for Ukrainian soldiers in Kherson all day as well – spontaneous hugging attacks and eruptions of loud chants of “thank you” have followed them wherever they’ve gone. In a recent speech, Zelenskyy addressed russia saying, “We’ll be fine without electricity… as long as we no longer have you. We’ll make do without gas… as long as we don’t have to make do with you. We’ll survive without running water… as long as we don’t have to survive with you.” Kherson is proving that statement to be true. They are still without their basic utilities, but life is grand with the occupiers gone.

Soldiers and journalists have been sharing videos of celebrations all day. In the picture you can see a Ukrainian soldier showing a babusya videos of burning russian tanks on his phone. The thrill on her face as she watches just cracks me up. The comments while she was watching were along the lines of, “Woah! That was a good one,” and “Oh… if only that one had burned longer,” and “that was like a New Year’s firework!”

An international journalist asked one thrilled young man about what it was like to live through eight months of russian occupation. He said in response that “you have to have something to look forward to… something to live for.” He then looked around as he stood on the main square of his home city, and saw the crowds of people draped in blue and yellow, and looked at the pure joy all around him and said, “This. This is what we were living for.”

The Ukrainian army, however, is not taking time off. The Kinburn peninsula juts out to the south west of Kherson. The spokeswoman for the Ukraine’s southern operational command said today that combat operations are already underway in that area. There has been at least one report of Ukraine launching an amphibious assault on that peninsula already as well.

The occupiers are taking the threat of further Ukrainian activity very seriously and they have already begun evacuating people from the left bank of the Dnipro River. I have even seen satellite images showing that russians are now digging trenches all the way back in Crimea. As a side bar… you’ve seen the joy after eight months of occupation in Kherson, can you imagine the party in Crimea after eight years of occupation?

Now that there has been a significant shift to the front line in the south, there will be a new set of cities for people to learn. One of the next important cities to learn about is Chaplynka. Chaplynka is the site of a military airfield from which russia has been launching recent attacks. Previously, it had been out of range but there have already been reports of explosions in that area.

“But you, O God, will cast them down
into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.”