‘Biggest challenge of my life’: Kherson’s leaders toil to turn city around | Ukraine

Before the war, the problems faced by the residents of Kherson were similar to those in many European cities: salaries, corruption, addiction, the need to improve public services. Now they centre on obtaining the means of survival: water, heat, food, electricity and connection to the outside world.

Many villages in the Kherson region have been without electricity, gas and running water for months. Kherson city’s electricity and water supply was cut off about two weeks ago as the Russians fled, and not everyone had a gas supply.