Kherson ( Ukraine ) - (AFP) - On the right bank of the Dnieper River, Ukrainian police armed with machine guns stop two men who arrived by boat in Kherson, which was liberated a month ago from the Russians, but the authorities are looking for their collaborators, past or present.

Ukrainian soldiers liberated Kherson on November 11, after eight months of its occupation by Russian forces, who withdrew to the left bank of the river.

The two men came to escape from one of the islands bordering the east bank, which is a gray area in which there are no Ukrainian forces and is controlled by Moscow de facto, although Russian soldiers are not seen there.
As soon as they arrived, Ukrainian policemen surprised them with orders: "Move! Hands up! Show your papers!"...

This scene reveals the climate of suspicion prevailing in Kherson, where the authorities still fear the presence of people who may have cooperated with the Russians or are still cooperating with them, and seek to expose them.

"Evacuations are permitted, but in the port (Kherson) they are lost," a Ukrainian policeman told AFP. "Here, this is illegal," he added.

He added that at the port "there are those responsible for these 'stabilization' measures, checking whether people are involved or not" in cooperation with Moscow.

But this adjustment failed quickly. Two rockets landed on a small island 200 meters from the river bank, sending out a plume of black smoke.

The Dnieper River became this new front line.

The two men and the police moved away to take shelter, while the investigation will resume with them after the return of calm.

After the liberation festivities, Kherson now lives under the tight watch of the police, who are heavily deployed and visible in the city.

From checkpoints at the city's entrances to patrols in the streets, policemen in blue uniforms check papers and ask questions, rummaging through car trunks for "collaborators".

"These people (collaborators) have been here for more than eight months, they worked for the Russian regime and now we have information and documents on each of them," Kherson region governor Yaroslav Yanushevich told AFP.

"Our police know everything about them and every one of them will be punished," Yanushevich added.

At a large crossroads at the end of a bridge leading to the industrial area and port, an elderly man approaches a police officer who is checking cars and passers-by. He asks him where he can go to fill two cans he is carrying with water.

The policeman replies suspiciously, "You say you live here and you don't know where the water point is?"

The man had to show a photo of his ID hidden in his pocket to prove his identity.

Inspections are also taking place at the train station, as some residents still evacuate the city with a daily train.

In a separate room, five police officers are sitting at several small tables, each questioning an evacuee sitting opposite, an AFP reporter witnessed.

On some streets of the city, the large propaganda posters of the occupier praising Russia have disappeared, replaced by new posters glorifying the liberation of Kherson. Besides, other posters appeared calling on the population to expose the collaborators of the Russian forces.

One of the posters read, "Provide information about traitors here." It has attached an app identifier or phone number.

And the governor of the region justifies this by saying, "This helps us to identify them, and to find out if they are still present in the lands that we control."
"Most of the information comes from the local population through simple conversations (...) We also analyze accounts on social networks and continue to monitor the Internet," Andrei Kovany, head of public relations in the Kherson region police, told AFP.

After the police, the Ukrainian security services take over the investigations.

Deputy Interior Minister Yevgen Yenin said more than 130 people had been arrested for cooperating with Russian forces in the Kherson region.

In front of one of the posters, a number of the city's residents affirmed their support for the principle of exposing the collaborators.

"It is always good to help find a collaborator or a traitor," Pavel, 40, who declined to reveal his surname, believes. "We must help our armed forces to arrest those who worked for Russia."

Since the city's liberation, Russian strikes have targeted energy infrastructure as well as homes, and civilians have been killed in these bombings.

"Our homes are being bombed at the moment. I think collaborators are helping (Russian forces) to target our homes," said Irina, 35.

On the other hand, Vyacheslav, 47, says that "all the collaborators fled to the other side" of the Dnieper River.

"We are all Ukrainian patriots here," the man asserts.