Photos of protests against the Russian occupation in Kherson were seen by the whole world. They were distributed by Reuters, The Times, The Guardian, BBC, thousands of news agencies and mass media. Thanks to these photos, the world knew that Kherson was occupied, but not conquered. These pictures captured the moments during which the latest history of Kherson, its heroes, its flesh and blood was born.

 

The author of these photoes is Oleksandr Kornyakov, a photo correspondent of the Media platform “Vgoru”. He spent five and a half months, starting from February 24, 2022, in the occupied Kherson. From the first days of the occupation, Oleksandr's colleagues insisted on evacuation. He also thought about leaving, however...

 

Oleksandr says:

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"What stopped me from leaving? Resistance started in the city. When I was going to go take pictures on the first day, I thought if there would be at least 500 people, that would be enough. And when I went out, there were so many brave people everywhere: with symbols, flags, posters. A large, large number of people who were not forced to protest, who were not paid for protesting, were not lured with anything. There were at least 15 thousand of them. This is then I felt my fear disappearing. I was no longer walking, but almost running, as fast as I could, so I would not to miss anything, so I could capture every second".

 

Oleksandr filmed how during the dispersal of rallies people were beaten, shot at, and dragged off the streets. Weapons, anti riot equipment, gas, stun grenades – the entire arsenal was used.

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"I will not forget how I coughed up their gas – it hurt so much that it seemed that it would burst from the inside," the photographer recalls".

 

In those moments, he did not think that he might get hurt himself, he was more worried about the equipment. That's why he took pictures of the first rally on a mobile phone, and the next day he took an old camera, breaking it would not be such a loss.

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