Russian military forces suppressed a demonstration taking place on Monday in Freedom Square in Kherson, a city occupied since early March, by firing grenades. Automatic weapon fire is also audible in the videos. At least one man was injured in the leg.
Numerous images and videos posted on social networks this Monday, March 21, at the start of the afternoon, report a very violent repression of Ukrainian demonstrators by the Russian army, in Kherson, a city occupied by Putin’s forces since 2 March. We see a sparse crowd being dispersed by loud detonations of grenades, as they advance towards a group of soldiers charging in their direction. The man filming also advances to cries of “go home !” Numerous automatic weapon fires are also audible.
Since Kherson fell to the Russians, rallies have been held regularly in the city center to protest the occupation, previous videos released show the 5 and March 10. This was also the case on Sunday March 20, when several videos attest to a gathering of civilians. Furthermore, the BBC confirmed that demonstrators managed to roll back a Kremlin army truck marked with the letter Z on Sunday.
A similar demonstration was underway on Monday morning, ahead of the violence. A video published at 11.14 a.m. on a Telegram channel which follows the conflict from Kherson thus attests to the calm presence of several dozen civilians in Svobody Square (Freedom Square) – where the regional administration building is located (link to geolocation here) as well as a memorial in honor of the Ukrainians killed in the encirclement of Ilovaisk, a battle of the Donbass war, in 2014.
The first occurrences of the videos of the repression posted on Telegram date back to around noon French time. The latter are published at 12:14 p.m. in two local Telegram channels of Kherson. CheckNews found many footage of the incident, taken from different angles. One of them is filmed from the top of the commercial building which overlooks the square, opposite the administrative building. The sequence, visibly captured by a surveillance camera, is time-stamped at 12:59 p.m. Ukrainian time, which is always around noon French time. The latter captures the scene from beginning to end. During their evolution on the square, the Russian soldiers use at least 10 tear gas canisters. After which they return to their starting position, next to the administrative building.
“The killers of the children of Donbass”
In another video shot at the scene, a protester films the memorial located in the square. In his words (and the translation made by CheckNews), we understand that the memorial was tagged in red ink by the Russians with the inscription “The killers of the children of Donbass”. The latter expresses her anger towards the Russian forces and promises: “We are going to remove this”adding: “And you, what are you going to do now, you bastards?”
At present, no official human toll has yet been communicated by the Ukrainian authorities or relief, even if, on Twitter, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba denounced “the ugly face of Russia, the disgrace of humanity” who has “opened fire on unarmed people”.
In Kherson, Russian war criminals opened fire at unarmed people who peacefully protested against invaders. You can see a wounded pensioner. This is the ugly face of Russia, a disgrace to humankind. We must stop Russia! Sanction them, isolate them, hold war criminals to account. pic.twitter.com/WeItSykD3q
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 21, 2022
On the video he broadcasts, an elderly man is on the ground, his leg bloody but conscious. We find this injured on several levels. Videos indeed show an old man injured in the leg. They show that a crowd has formed around him, a dozen people moving him a few meters away from the square and bringing him water. It is not known whether his injury was caused by automatic weapon fire or by the splinter of a grenade, the various local channels on Telegram contradicting each other on this point.
More generally, it is currently not possible to establish whether the gunshots heard in the videos were aimed at the crowd. In a video of the scene filmed a little further up the main road, we see that the Russian soldiers crossing the square are mostly holding their weapons pointed at the sky. At least one of them, in these images, is pointing at protesters.
Finally, from another angle, filmed this time from the south of the main road that crosses the square, we can see at least three soldiers, equipped with batons, with the weapon aimed at the demonstrators. As well as several arrests.