Soldiers spent months making clandestine trips across Ukraine's Dnipro River to plan the counteroffensive. Instead of facing off against Russian forces, this unit found itself fighting floodwaters.
Residents of the Russian-speaking city became partisans who fought for the independence of Ukraine. The nine-month occupation is over, but Russia continues to shell the city.
Russian shells pummeled the southern city, killing at least 10 people and injuring 55. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted the destruction came as Ukrainians were beginning Christmas celebrations.
The staff at the children's regional hospital in Kherson city, Ukraine, say they began fabricating orphans' medical records to make it appear like they were too ill to move.
Civilians have streamed out of the southern Ukrainian city whose recapture they had celebrated just weeks earlier, after days of intensive shelling by Russian forces.
Kherson is coming back to life after more than 8 1/2 months under Russian occupation. There's no water or electricity, but residents are celebrating — even as they recall the horrors of occupation.
Since Russian troops withdrew and Ukrainian forces moved in, residents are meeting up in the city's main square to celebrate, waving their flag, singing and dancing.
The Ukrainian president appears openly in front of the main government building in the southern city, and speaks to cheering residents who endured eight months of Russian occupation.
Many soldiers from the southern port city of Kherson spent months trying to liberate their homes. The Russian retreat last week was a major blow to Moscow's war effort.
Russia says it's withdrawing from the southern city of Kherson, but Ukraine says it's not seeing a pullout. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is asking Ukraine to show a willingness to negotiate.
Born in Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov had switched to Russia's side and mimicked its claims about Nazi rule, becoming spokesman and deputy governor of the Moscow-installed administration in Kherson.
