There is always a lot going on in Ukraine, and while I tend to read a lot of it, not a whole lot filters down to this blog. I’ve mentioned it before: I’m mostly focused on the people of Mariupol and places I’ve visited and know (to some degree). Unfortunately, it remains under Russian occupation, and since Mariupol is one of the closer locations to the real Russian border, it will likely be one of the last places to be liberated. Which means there likely will continue to be a dearth of news from that corner of the war.

In other areas, as you may have read or seen on the news, things are going rather well for the Ukrainians. War is never good, but the situation for the people around Kherson is definitely becoming more good. Or at least less bad, comparatively speaking. And I do kind of have a connection to the city. When I bought my house, I definitely didn’t know that I would eventually marry a woman from Ukraine. Had I known, I might have planned ahead and picked a house in one of the more “Slavic” areas. There is a fairly large Slavic population in the area, and Russian is typically in the top 5 of most spoken languages (after English) by county throughout the state. My point being, I didn’t buy a house in an area with a Russian- or Ukrainian-speaking population.

By sheer happenstance, the neighbor on the other side of my back fence also married a woman from Ukraine, from Kherson. And her mother had come to the US and was living with the couple. And that mother (Tanya) has become one of Viktoria’s closest friends. (Viktoria was in our backyard one Spring day and was surprised to hear Russian coming from other the fence. She poked her head over, said hello, and that was the start of a really good friendship.) So we do have that connection to Kherson, but even without that, I would be rooting for the people of Kherson.

Kherson is one of the larger cities along the Black Sea, but they aren’t right on the coast; they’re inland a bit, along the Dnipro River, just as it gets to the Black Sea (see map). It’s between Mariupol and Odessa, more to the Odessa side, and just northwest of the Crimean Peninsula, which is currently occupied by Russia. Being so close to a Russian-held area, it was the first large city captured in the current invasion, and it fell without the large-scale destruction seen elsewhere because, unfortunately, there were collaborators in sufficient numbers to turn the city over to the invaders. While the people of Kherson have fared better in this war than the people of Mariupol, a “comfortable prison” is still a prison.

The Ukrainian army has making steady progress on retaking the city over the past weeks, and they appear to be near to a major breakthrough. The Russians seem to know this too, since they’ve been evacuating Russian officials who had moved into the city. They’ve also “evacuating” groups of Ukrainians too because apparently the forced relocation of a native population is all the rage (In Kherson, invaders searching for locals who refuse to ‘evacuate’ – ukrinform.net). And since they’re leaving, the Russians are looting the city — something they wouldn’t be doing if they thought they’d be there for the long-term (Russian occupying forces loot Kherson art museum – Kyiv Independent). As was seen when Russia was pushed out of Northern Ukraine, Russian soldiers’ fingers get very sticky (Now Russia ‘liberates’… a WASHING MACHINE: Putin’s men are spotted stealing kitchen appliance from Ukrainian home – Daily Mail).

This all seems pretty good, but it still won’t be a cake-walk for the Ukrainian forces. Defensive lines are probably set up throughout the city, and a handful of soldiers with nothing to lose — which could be a description of the ill-trained conscripts that Russia has been stuffing into Kherson (Russia struggling to train newly mobilized troops – ukrinform.net) — could make things difficult for Ukraine (Russians seek to lure Ukraine forces into urban battles – ukrinform.net). Nevertheless, it does look like Ukraine is close to liberating Kherson, which would not only be a major military gain, but a huge symbolic victory against Russia.

And I know a few people who would be very, very happy to see that happen.