Devil in Kherson

Radio Télévision Suisse | 14min
Postproduction script

00:00:02,789 VO: -The day has just risen on Kherson. These people can't stand another day of bombing. These inhabitants have chosen to leave. This old postal bus donated by a Swiss NGO takes them to Odessa, out of reach of the Russian artillery. Ludmilla is 82 years old. These men wore bulletproof vests to pick her up from her house and take her to the bus. Every step is an effort. She lived on the 9th floor of a building without electricity and therefore without an elevator. Her daughter did not know how to protect her.

00:00:43,372 Svetlana: -She was born during WW2, in 1940. I don't want her to die in another war. We spent every night in the cellar, with the inhabitants of the building. All the young people have gone, only the old ones are left.

0’53 Svetlana Mecenko

00:00:57,444 Ludmilla: -The bombings are terrifying. Maybe we'll come back.

1’01 Ludmilla Mecenko

00:01:02,049 Svetlana: -Of course we'll come back!

00:01:06,180 VO: -In the bus, everybody is tense. The cat Assa helps to divert attention.

00:01:12,882 Child: -I'm going to Poland. Because the war is here... and they could bomb me.

00:01:25,078 VO: -They are not the only ones fleeing the city. At the last checkpoint, a long procession of cars leaves Kherson and its nightmare. For all, a shared feeling. They all feel both relief and pain at leaving home.

1’52 Title – Devil in Kherson

00:01:58,190 VO: Artur came to drink a coffee here. He never came back. The young man died in a Russian bombing. Another attack. He was sitting in that car. Artur's sister and cousins are inconsolable, but also angry.

00:02:43,168 Ruslana: -Putin has destroyed us. It is him and only him. People die for nothing.

2’47 Ruslana, Sister of the victim

00:03:00,364 VO: -In the next yard, two other people died in the same bombing. At the foot of his building, Sacha shows us the impacts of the of the fragmentation bomb. He looks like a miracle worker.

00:03:14,825 Sacha: -This is my room on the third floor.

00:03:21,152 VO: -Sacha takes us to see to see his apartment. Or at least, what's left of it.

00:03:27,427 Sacha: -This was my room here, with my bed. If I had been there during the bombing, I would not be here to answer you. Now I feel angry against the Russians. I have a desire for revenge.

00:03:48,786 VO: -Sacha's life was spared because he went next room to see his mother.

00:03:53,647 Sacha’s mother: -My son had gone to bed. He came back 3 minutes later and said: "Let's chat some more". He sat there on the armrest, and we saw a light. We were terrified.

00:04:14,973 VO: -Unable to move, Sacha's mother has been living on this bed for months, confined to a room with the minimum. Food and a few books.

00:04:24,286 Sacha: -I want you to show the world against whom the Russians are really fighting.

00:04:37,123 VO: -Those who were less lucky than Sacha and his mother come here. Tropinka Hospital, one of the five in Kherson. Some of the wounded from the bombing are being treated. More than 200, according to the establishment. These include Viktor, who risks to lose the use of his hand. He was standing in front of his house, closing the garage door, when he was attacked.

00:05:04,727 Viktor: -There is no military target in or near my house. I don't know why they bombed me.

00:05:11,665 VO: -Leonid Remiga has been the head doctor of the hospital for decades. He gives us a tour of his of his facility.

00:05:19,028 Leonid: -This is where we sort out the injured. Here is a woman with a wound on her thigh caused by a shell hit.

00:05:34,041 VO: -The head doctor tells us that during the Russian occupation, he refused to submit to the new power. He says he has been removed from his post and thrown into prison.

00:05:44,470 Leonid: -I had trouble walking, and the guard was urging me by hitting me with a baton to make me go faster, I had a bag over my head. It was very hard and scary, you never know what you're in for.

5’52 Leonid Remiga, Head doctor and hospital director

00:06:04,363 VO: -His colleague was also arrested. The two doctors say that in prison, they were asked to take care of the other detainees.

00:06:11,600 Andrei: -They tortured indifferently, men and women. When people get their leg broken, they don't scream as loud. It's a torture Gestapo, I can't say it any other way.

6’17 Andrei Koksharov, Doctor

00:06:24,738 Leonid: -They invented this expression, "the Zelensky phone call". They hang one cable in your ear the other on the testicles, and they turn on the power.

00:06:41,895 VO: -At the end of the day, we meet the head doctor in what is his office: a piece of hallway. He explains us that since the departure of the Russians, he never wanted to go back to his real office.

00:06:58,131 Leonid: -My office was occupied by traitors. I was questioned by armed members of the Russian FSB, the internal security. As I am quite a religious person, I'll wait for my office to be blessed by a priest before going back there.

7’04 Leonid Remiga, Head doctor and hospital director

00:07:23,631 VO: -"Kherson" in golden letters, the symbol of victory. This city gate has been very popular since the departure of the Russians. Everyone wants to take a selfie. This morning, it's the turn of a delegate and his team from Kyiv.

00:07:35,606 Oleksandr: -We came to support the people. Kherson is at the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe. We bring them water.

7’39 Oleksandr Kachura, Delegate

00:07:45,706 VO: -Oleksandr Kachura belongs to President Zelensky's party. He came with a shipment of aid. He brings food to the inhabitants of this building who can no longer move and have been deprived electricity for three weeks. They are at the forefront of this war. Their building faces the Dnieper river which is the new front line.

00:08:15,713 Oleksandr: -Do the Russians bomb a lot on the other side?

00:08:18,720 Elderly woman: -Yes, the explosions are very strong, the smoke too.

00:08:26,189 Elderly man: -At night, you can really hear the Russians bombing. It's scary. Most people left the building for this reason.

00:08:38,182 VO: -The Russians have left the city but they are still on the other side of the river.

00:08:42,826 Elderly man: -They are hiding over there.

00:08:48,870 Oleksandr: -People say it's dangerous even to go out on the balcony, because snipers are on watch. And on top of that, they are bombing. They do it during aid distributions to make people panic.

8’59 Oleksandr Kachura, Delegate

00:09:10,012 VO: -The deputy and his team start the massive distribution of aid. The shots have just landed, but within a few minutes, hundreds of people are still crowding in front of the truck. Katarina is 5 years old today. Her mother died a few months ago. she is with her grandmother.

00:09:33,850 Katarina’s grandmother: -I hope it's the others I hope it's the Ukrainian defence. She is afraid, she hears the shots, so she wants me to put her hood on. She's scared.

00:09:49,202 Reporter: -Is it better with the hood?

Katarina’s grandmother: -Yes, like this, she hears less.

00:09:54,767 Reporter: -How is she?

00:10:01,357 VO: -Further down the line, the Skorikova family. She was waiting for this truck with impatience. The distributions remain sporadic and the stores are still closed.

00:10:21,175 Olga: -I have three children, my Mother, my husband who doesn't work anymore. Nobody works. We have to survive, feed our children. It's a hard time.

10’28 Olga Skorikova

00:10:37,508 VO: -The threat is getting closer for the Skorikova family. Three days later, their street was hit by the bombs. They don't know where to go outside Kherson, have nowhere to flee to. They try to hold on in their homes. Until then, the father went to the river to fish and earn some money. But since the bombing, this is no longer an option.

00:11:00,996 Slava: -Some fishermen went on the river a few days ago. They were shot at. Their bodies remained on the boat along the river, it was too dangerous to go and pick them up.

11’08 Slava, Husband of Olga

00:11:19,884 VO: -Every night they come down here to sleep in safety, all six of them. This cellar was used to store vegetables, a cramped place. They can't all lie down there at the same time.

00:11:43,840 Olga: -They are bombing. Every night it's like this. It lasts all night, and during the day too. It can fall any time on the house. We have to run away here to get some sleep. It's a form of protection.

00:12:09,164 VO: -We return to Tropinka Hospital. Next to the main building, there is this church, the patients' chapel. The priest was driven out by the Russians during the occupation. When he came back a few days ago, he found his church looted by the occupants.

00:12:28,054 Father Oleg: -It was like this before the occupation. Look at this. See? That was the middle part, that's how it used to look like.

00:12:41,910 Reporter: -Was it valuable?

00:12:43,933 Father Oleg: -Yes, we even had icons that were priceless, historical works of art.

00:12:51,986 VO: -But the priest puts it into perspective. It is not the possessions of the church that worries him most.

00:12:57,057 Father Oleg: -There is another problem. It's how to fight hate, how to fight the desire for revenge. This is going to be a long fight. I think it will that it will take two generations to get back to a normal situation.

13’05 Father Oleg, Priest of hospital church

00:13:16,113 VO: -This morning, the priest is expected by the head doctor of the hospital. It is time to get his office blessed by the priest so he can at last get back to work in the office. He hasn't been in here for months. Ever since he was questioned roughly with the Russian forces.

00:13:40,157 Father Oleg: -I bless thee, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let the evil spirits leave this place.

00:13:52,520 VO: -The two men seem to regain a certain serenity. Their prayers will cover, for a brief moment, the sound of the bombing that continues to rage outside.

14’10 Credits:

Sébastien Faure
Jón Björgvinsson
Mykhaylo Gorbatov
Renée-Jeanne Acquaviva
Pierre Bader
Edgard Biondina