After several August strikes by Russian aircraft on the only road bridge over the Kosheva River, residents of Kherson’s Korabel neighborhood, known locally as Ostriv, began urgently leaving the area. The crossing links the district with the main part of the city, and volunteers warn that if the shelling continues, the neighborhood will be completely cut off.
Evacuation teams are taking people out under constant threat of artillery fire and drone attacks. According to Maksym, a volunteer with Sylni, bo Vilni, the phones never stop ringing, and there are now more drones over the district than birds. The armored minibus used for evacuations has repeatedly been damaged by shrapnel and mines, but the trips continue for as long as access remains possible.
Ostriv was the first area in Kherson to come under shelling after the city was de-occupied, and it was later hit hardest by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. In June 2023, water levels there rose to eight meters: the lower floors of apartment blocks were flooded and private homes were destroyed. What was once a prosperous district with schools, kindergartens, factories, beaches, and summer houses now resembles a post-catastrophe landscape.
Buses no longer run to Korabel, there is no electricity or gas, water supplies remain disrupted, post offices have closed, and bringing in food is dangerous. People wait by evacuation vehicles with a few bags and their pets. Among them are an 89-year-old woman with dementia, whom her daughter had previously tried to move to safety, and 68-year-old Tetyana, who is being forced to leave her home for the second time since the flooding.
“If the bridge is gone, no one will be able to get them out. The only way would be by boat across the river, and that would be a live target for the Russians,” volunteer Maksym says.
According to figures cited in the report, about 240 people remain on Ostriv. Since the beginning of August, volunteers, police, and the city administration have evacuated around 1,700 people, including 56 children and 170 residents with limited mobility. Some have been placed in shelters, hospitals, or with relatives in safer parts of the city.
In Shumenskyi, considered one of the relatively safer districts, the same volunteer organization has opened a children’s center inside a shelter. Around 80 children attend classes there in classrooms, workshops, play areas, and a sports hall, with support from a psychologist, a special education specialist, and a rehabilitation therapist. Project organizers say that in a city where about 5,000 children still remain according to official data, such spaces are needed not only for study but also to restore social contact and a sense of safety.