In the middle of October,\u00a0Natalia Pitaichuk\u00a0packed up her\u00a0four\u00a0children\u00a0and left her family home in the\u00a0town\u00a0of\u00a0Beryslav\u00a0in the southern Ukrainian region of\u00a0Kherson. Two days later,\u00a0her house was destroyed in a Russian strike. <\/p>\n
The decision to\u00a0leave was\u00a0a\u00a0difficult\u00a0one. She lived through nine months of Russian occupation in\u00a0Kherson\u00a0region;\u00a0her house was searched twice\u00a0and\u00a0Russian soldiers roamed the streets\u00a0rounding up\u00a0men of fighting age.\u00a0She stayed through the vengeful Russian shelling which followed the jubilation of liberation in November 2022. \u201cIt was scary, but tolerable,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
But over the past month, the situation\u00a0had\u00a0become\u00a0unbearable. <\/p>\n
A Russian strike targeted the\u00a0Beryslav\u00a0hospital where she worked. Hospital staff were huddled in the basement and emerged covered in dust after the\ufeff<\/strong>\u00a0all-clear\u00a0was issued,\u00a0Pitaichuk recalled. Two people were injured in that attack. <\/p>\n \u201cThe hospital where I worked was destroyed, the kindergarten was destroyed, everything was in ruins.\u00a0So\u00a0I decided to leave with my children. And literally two\u00a0days later our house was hit,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Russian forces have been striking the western bank of the Dnipro\u00a0River \u2013\u00a0on which\u00a0Kherson\u00a0City and Beryslav sit \u2013\u00a0since Ukraine regained control of the area\u00a0a year ago. <\/p>\n But\u00a0the\u00a0Russian assaults are\u00a0now\u00a0more punishing than ever, according to Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, a spokesman for the\u00a0Kherson\u00a0Region\u00a0Military Administration. <\/p>\n Over the past week, at least one person was killed in\u00a0the liberated part of\u00a0Kherson\u00a0as a result of\u00a0Russian attacks every day. \u201cIf a month and a half ago it was 300-350 shells, two to three bombs a day, and we thought it was a lot, now it is up to 750 shells a day. The number of bombs has increased many times over,\u201d Tolokonnikov said. <\/p>\n The relentless strikes may be a Russian effort to hamper Ukrainian efforts to establish a presence across the\u00a0Dnipro\u00a0River,\u00a0in the Russian-occupied eastern part of\u00a0Kherson\u00a0region. <\/p>\n The bulk of the Ukrainian military has been\u00a0focused on\u00a0front lines\u00a0leading to\u00a0the Sea of Azov\u00a0in the\u00a0Zaporizhzhia region,\u00a0to the east of\u00a0Kherson. But small\u00a0cross-river\u00a0raids by Ukraine\u00a0have\u00a0kept\u00a0Russian troops\u00a0busy, preventing them from being diverted for\u00a0reinforcements\u00a0elsewhere along\u00a0the\u00a01,300 km-long\u00a0frontline. <\/p>\n If Ukraine manages to gain a strong foothold across the Dnipro, analysts say it could mean greater risk to targets in occupied Crimea and even more pressure on already\u00a0strained Russian logistical routes. <\/p>\n Ihor Chornyi,\u00a0<\/strong>a\u00a0volunteer with the organization \u201cStrong Because We Are Free,\u201d\u00a0has been helping civilians leave since the area was liberated. <\/p>\n The collapse of the Russian-controlled Nova Kakhovka\u00a0Dam on the Dnipro in June killed dozens, destroyed villages, and changed fighting conditions in the area. The floodwaters halted Ukrainian ambitions to cross the river for some time. <\/p>\n But as the water receded and levelled off, Ukraine renewed its\u00a0efforts. In mid-October, a Ukrainian cross-river raid managed to temporarily infiltrate occupied villages on the eastern\u00a0\u2014\u00a0or left\u00a0\u2014\u00a0bank of the river. <\/p>\n \u201cIt seems that Russians on the left bank are very worried that our brave soldiers will soon cross the river to them and start liberating the left bank. In this way, they are simply warning and intimidating the population and the Armed Forces of Ukraine\u00a0that they are ready and will destroy and kill people if we make attempts to liberate the left bank,\u201d Tolokonnikov said. <\/p>\n Since mandatory evacuation orders were issued on October 23 for children in 23 settlements in\u00a0Kherson\u00a0region,\u00a0around 300 children and their families have been taken to safety, while 497 children are still waiting for their chance to leave, according to local officials. <\/p>\n But\u00a0with the recent wave of attacks,\u00a0even moving people out of harm\u2019s way has become riskier. \u201cEvacuation missions are becoming more dangerous. We have had situations where we gathered people, started moving them and were shot at. But thank God, they didn\u2019t hit us,\u201d\u00a0Chornyi\u00a0said. <\/p>\n Pitaichuk\u2019s\u00a0family has now settled in the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine.\u00a0After two weeks of living without daily shelling in their new, temporary home, the children \u2013 whose ages range from 5 to 14 \u2013 are finally feeling at ease. <\/p>\n But still, \u201cwhenever they see Ukrainian fighters or helicopters in the sky, the children are frightened and ask if they will be bombed,\u201d\u00a0Pitaichuk\u00a0said. <\/p>\n\n In the middle of October,\u00a0Natalia Pitaichuk\u00a0packed up her\u00a0four\u00a0children\u00a0and left her family home in the\u00a0town\u00a0of\u00a0Beryslav\u00a0in the southern Ukrainian region of\u00a0Kherson. Two days later,\u00a0her house was destroyed in a Russian strike. The decision to\u00a0leave was\u00a0a\u00a0difficult\u00a0one. She lived through nine months of Russian occupation in\u00a0Kherson\u00a0region;\u00a0her house was searched twice\u00a0and\u00a0Russian soldiers roamed the streets\u00a0rounding up\u00a0men of fighting age.\u00a0She stayed <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}