![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/after-a-long-hibernation-under-russian-control-kherson-nervously-embraces-a-new-dawn/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TELEMMGLPICT000316221778_1_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgsaO8O78rhmZrDxTlQBjdLdu0TL-Cg_AMOUqySXmFgU.jpeg&description=When Russian tanks rolled into Kherson nine months ago, Inna Kudas's window on the world began to shrink. First, the occupiers shut down local media and cut off internet access. Then, as Russian troops began arresting people on the streets, she grew scared to leave her flat, observing life mainly from her balcony. "I knew that if you left home, you might not come back again," she said. On Friday night, though, she spotted something that raised her spirits for the first time in months - a group of soldiers carrying what looked like Ukrainian flags. Even so, having been incommunicado for months, she wasn't sure whether to believe her eyes. "Here we have become used to double-checking everything, so I shouted down: 'Are you our army?' and they said yes," she told The Telegraph. "I am so happy now, I can hardly stop crying." Ms Kudas, 50, was speaking in Kherson's Freedom Square, where crowds gathered for a third day on Monday to celebrate Russia's withdrawal from the city. While distant artillery fire could still be heard, it did not stop an unannounced visit from Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. He told the crowd that the Russian retreat marked the "beginning of the end of the war".){kind=link}
Blinking in disbelief, Ukrainian city slowly adapts after months under Kremlin command, with residents not knowing who to trust
When Russian tanks rolled into Kherson nine months ago, Inna Kudas’s window on the world began to shrink.
First, the occupiers shut down local media and cut off internet access. Then, as Russian troops began arresting people on the streets, she grew scared to leave her flat, observing life mainly from her balcony.
“I knew that if you left home, you might not come back again,” she said.
On Friday night, though, she spotted something that raised her spirits for the first time in months – a group of soldiers carrying what looked like Ukrainian flags. Even so, having been incommunicado for months, she wasn’t sure whether to believe her eyes.