Russian propaganda continues to churn out fakes about the Kherson region – from the “mined” regional center to invented “partisans” who allegedly fight against the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Last week there were also manipulations around a statement by the head of the Kherson OVA Oleksandr Prokudin, whose words about Yulia Mendel propagandists simply ripped out of context. The latest wave of fakes has a single goal – to discredit the Ukrainian army and local authorities. Admittedly, the Russians are quite poor at this.
Mined Kherson
The traitor Volodymyr Saldo made another feeble attempt to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to him, the AFU mined the city of Kherson and are preparing to “blow up” the regional center in case they withdraw from it. Of course, as usual Saldo provided no evidence for his information other than fabricated “own sources”.
Saldo recently told Russian media about the mining of Kherson’s infrastructure.
“The logic of the Kyiv regime’s actions is clear. They have already shown that they are ready to destroy energy facilities, bridges, roads, social facilities, water infrastructure. The tragedy of the Kakhovka HPP became a horrific example of such an approach. Therefore the risks of destruction during the enemy’s withdrawal are being taken seriously. Reports are coming from the right bank of Kherson region about mining, placing military objects next to civilian infrastructure and preparing Ukrainian military to destroy important communications,” he said.
Thus, Saldo, in his usual manner, accuses the Ukrainian army of the very war crimes committed by the Russians. Evidently, anyone capable of rational thought perfectly understands who actually blew up the Kakhovka HPP dam in the summer of 2023, so we will not dwell on that. As for the “mining of bridges and social facilities”, even the occupiers themselves do not deny that it was they who destroyed, for example, the Antonivskyi Bridge and the Kherson TV tower during their flight from the regional center.
We should add that in 2022 Saldo’s masters planted explosives near countless civilian facilities on the right bank of the Kherson region. Everything was mined – from private houses to hospitals, power plants and agricultural land. Residents of the liberated territories still feel the consequences of this.
By publishing Saldo’s outright lies, enemy media refer to yet another fake from their own propaganda spread last month. It claims that the AFU allegedly mined specific objects in Kherson, namely the sewage system. According to the Russian propaganda’s “verified information”, members of the fictitious “Kherson resistance” observed the process. No one explained why Ukrainians would blow up the sewage system in their own city.
By the way, the collaborator is not the first to stage a hysterical fuss about imagined mining. For example, similar lies in his name were spread by Russian media back in September last year. Then Saldo claimed, that the AFU planted explosives under houses in the Ostrov neighborhood of Kherson and were going to detonate them to “discredit the Russians”. Of course, not a single one of his words proved to be true then either.
Kherson partisans
“Kherson partisans”… If you have never heard of detachments of Russian underground fighters operating on the right bank of the Kherson region – you haven’t missed anything, because they do not actually exist. Nevertheless, enemy propaganda continues to lie about some “Kherson resistance” that even carries out sabotage against the AFU. However, the Russians provide no real evidence of the activities of their reconnaissance and sabotage groups in the liberated communities of the region.
Information about a recent “partisan” sabotage appeared on the Telegram channel “Russian Kherson”.
“On the right bank of the Kherson region, sabotage groups of ‘Russian Kherson’ are working to mine the rear areas of the enemy. The result in the photo: another pair of fascist AFU members blew up on mines and ended their miserable lives, never waiting for the promised ‘victory’, handing over their weapons and ammunition to the partisan groups,” pompously declare the authors of the channel.
As proof of the existence and activity of the “Kherson partisans”, the occupiers posted blurry photos showing military uniforms and weapons lying in the grass. However, there are no signs of an explosion or traces of blood after the “sabotage” in them. This is essentially where the “evidence” of underground activity on the left bank of the Kherson region ends.
It should be noted that the story of imaginary partisans began right after the liberation of the regional center in 2022. Since then, enemy propaganda has been talking about some pro-Russian Kherson residents who stayed on the right bank to agitate and carry out “sabotage activities”.
In 2024 the underground even got a spokesman – a man dressed in a balaclava called “Slavik”, who sometimes told of his heroics: he and his comrades allegedly set fire to relay cabinets at the railway station, kidnapped employees of the TCC and pasted pro-Russian leaflets. And all this in Kherson, where strict infiltration measures and a curfew are in effect.
Of course, the fictional partisans could not prove any of their “actions”, nor the existence of an underground organization on the right bank of the Kherson region. By the way, “Slavik” himself has not appeared in public for over a year. Maybe he got tired of wearing a balaclava?
Prokudin threatens Mendel with reprisal
The next information from the Russians is, oddly enough, not entirely fake. Head Oleksandr Prokudin did indeed publish a post on his Facebook page that they refer to. In it the head of the Kherson OVA allegedly threatens to kill the former press secretary of Volodymyr Zelensky after her scandalous interview with American Tucker Carlson.
“Prokudin threatened Mendel with reprisal: “You are only one of the mankurts who sooner or later will face punishment. It doesn’t matter where you hide,” – this is how the head of the Kherson OVA Oleksandr Prokudin speaks about a woman from the Kherson region who wants the war to end. And here the main question arises: who is really the traitor? Delicate Mendel, who tells a truth unappealing to Kyiv?” – note the authors of the Telegram channel “Free Kherson”.
Prokudin did indeed write a post dedicated to Mendel, and it contains the phrase quoted by the Russians. However, the Kremlin propagandists ripped it out of context. The head of the OVA is not threatening the “delicate woman”, but warning that every action in life will have to be answered for. In general, Prokudin’s post says that instead of openly kowtowing to the Russians and spreading their narratives, the media figure could visit Kherson and see how the occupiers hunt its residents every day. It’s quite an apt invitation, since Yulia Mendel was born in the Kherson region.
“Kherson is under Russian strikes every day. Kherson buries its people every day. And to listen to musings about a “provincial town” from someone who has not been here once since the beginning of the full-scale war is disgusting. If Kherson really mattered to you — you would come, work here under fire, help people. Not chatter in the studio of a Kremlin propagandist thousands of kilometers from here, trading our land and our grief,” writes Prokudin.
Yes, the post ends with the phrase cited by the Russians, but this is not a threat, rather a warning that for spreading Russian narratives the “delicate woman” may bear responsibility.