About the Project
"Occupation is worse than prison," says one of the protagonists of our project, journalist and mother of three, Svitlana Horieva, who chose not to leave Kherson during the Russian occupation.
In 2014, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and instigated a war in eastern Ukraine. On February 24, 2022, Russia escalated its aggression, launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine with hopes of executing a blitzkrieg to capture Kyiv in just three days. However, thanks to the determined resistance of the Ukrainian people, these plans failed spectacularly.
Despite the collapse of their blitzkrieg strategy, the Russian army, at great cost and with severe civilian casualties, managed to make territorial gains in eastern, northern, and southern Ukraine. Kherson, a city on the right bank of the Dnipro River, became the only regional capital in Ukraine that Russian forces managed to capture during the full-scale war.
Russian troops entered Kherson on March 1, 2022. From the outset, they sought to dominate not just the territory but also the minds of its people. The occupiers conducted searches of civilian homes, engaged in intimidation and torture, and coerced residents to participate in a sham referendum for Kherson Oblast’s annexation by Russia. They also pressured locals to accept Russian passports and worked to erase Ukrainian identity, relentlessly propagating the message: "Russia is here forever."
However, this "forever" lasted just eight and a half months. On November 11, 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated Kherson.
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A key factor in the liberation of Kherson was the widespread resistance and the people’s unyielding desire for freedom.
Local residents organized massive pro-Ukrainian rallies, stood unarmed in the path of Russian tanks, painted yellow-and-blue symbols under occupation, played the Ukrainian national anthem, provided the Defense Forces with coordinates of Russian equipment and collaborators, and carried out daring acts of sabotage behind enemy lines.
Despite all attempts by the occupiers to subjugate the city, Kherson residents demonstrated to the world that they had never welcomed the Russians. Kherson remains an inseparable part of Ukraine.
The Signal to Resist media platform is dedicated to sharing the bravery of Khersonians and their resistance to occupation, as well as exposing Russia’s war crimes. This website will compile personal stories of both civilian and military resistance, analyze significant events of this period, and examine controversial figures and the activities of the resistance movement.
Our goal is to share this information with Ukrainians both at home and abroad, as well as with the international audience and partners. Therefore, all stories will be published in both Ukrainian and English.
In addition, we are working on a documentary film about the resistance of Khersonians under occupation. The project is being led by Estonian director Ilmar Raag in collaboration with a team of Ukrainian journalists and filmmakers.
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The war continues, with parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, as well as Crimea, still under Russian occupation.
The Russians are tightening their grip, persecuting Ukrainian activists, and implementing increasingly brutal repressive measures against any signs of resistance. Yet, many Ukrainians remain on these lands, holding onto hope for liberation and waiting for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
We firmly believe that the Defense Forces and those living in occupied territories will continue to surprise Ukraine and the international community, and that the Ukrainian flag will return to all occupied territories—just as it returned to Kherson.
“They may fire at us, but we are free!” say Kherson residents, who have proven through their example that the impossible is possible.
The key lesson Ukraine offers the world is simple: if you don’t show your love for freedom, no one will come to help you. That’s why everything begins with resistance.
Our team
Editor-in-chief Dmytro Kuzubov
Producer Vitalii Sheremetiev, Mykola Lytvynenko
Manager Darina Anastasieva
Journalists Olena Pavlenko, Sofiia Panasiuk, Viktoria Novikova, Pavlo Korobchuk, Viktoria Nesterenko, Olena Vysokolian, Dmytro Kuzubov
Translator Volha Mikhnovich
Designer Hennadiy Yakovlev
Photographer Vyacheslav Tsvetkov
Illustrator Varvara Salikhova