In the latest episode of "Conversations about Restoration", we speak to Liza Zharkykh, a journalist with 15 years’ experience and deputy editor-in-chief of the Vgoru.Kherson Media Platform, about whether the central government understands life in frontline regions, why displaced people should not be viewed as a burden, and how IDPs can maintain their connection with the Kherson region; what role the media and civil society organisations play; and whether it is possible today to speak of the recovery of the Kherson region, when the very word ‘recovery’ is increasingly heard alongside the word ‘survival’. Because the red zone is expanding, people are forced to leave dangerous communities, and the number of IDPs is growing.
The Vgoru.Kherson Media Platform is one of the most popular in the Kherson region today. And according to Liza Zharkykh, the main task is not just to show what is happening in the Kherson region, but to talk to people and support the Kherson community: “We want the people of Kherson, wherever they may be – abroad, in another city in Ukraine, or in Kherson itself – to feel a sense of belonging to this community. Right now, we can’t all be together. And it’s normal for people to integrate economically into the communities they live in. But culturally, we want them to remain Kherson people.”
With the start of the full-scale invasion, the media became a key source of information. They are the first to communicate with representatives of the authorities, civil society, and the military, so we asked Liza to what extent, in her opinion, our authorities are coping with the responsibilities placed upon them under the current circumstances.
“We need to talk about the national level. The central government doesn’t always fully understand how regions like Kherson live. In fact, Kherson is a very peculiar region in that, theoretically, the Russians are unlikely to cross the Dnipro. But nothing is stopping them from destroying the city. And every month we see the so-called ‘red zone’ expanding, and the number of displaced people growing. And these people are not integrated into society. I mean, it’s good that they’re supported there, that they’re given humanitarian aid, that they’re helped to leave, but the point is that these people need to integrate into society. They shouldn’t wait for the war to end, because we don’t know when it will end. And it seems to me that, at the national level, we still don’t understand how to integrate these people into society,” says the journalist.
According to a study published at the end of 2025, the proportion of mentions of the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) and frontline regions, such as the Kherson region, on social media and in the media landscape was extremely low at 0.3%. This points to significant information isolation of the occupied regions and insufficient attention to the problems of the people living there. According to Liza, it seems that we, as a region, are not part of the national policy framework. It is the task of local authorities to communicate and advocate more effectively about developments in the region, the needs of internally displaced persons, the security situation, and related matters.
The topic of attitudes towards IDPs is raised separately in the conversation. Communities often perceive IDPs as an additional burden on the budget, social services, housing, and healthcare. But Liza emphasizes: there are many active people among the displaced who can work, start businesses, pay taxes, and develop the communities they have moved to.
“It is important for communities in other regions to understand that displaced people are, in fact, people who will pay taxes and will help develop your region or community. Because very often, the people who leave are those who are more energetic, who have opportunities, strength, and the desire to work, who can start afresh. This is a story about how people will benefit another community. It is an opportunity to develop, fill the budget, and strengthen yourselves as a community, rather than seeing it as some kind of additional burden,” explains Liza.
Alongside the question of perception comes the question of to what extent IDPs can consider themselves IDPs as such, or whether people who left as far back as 2022 might already identify as locals? And here, too, the media’s task is to convey this information not only to host communities but also to the displaced people themselves. After all, today the audience for local media is no longer limited to a single settlement. And Liza confirmed that, for example, the audience of ‘Vgoru’ is not only people who still remain in Kherson, but also those Kherson residents who have moved to Kyiv, Odesa, other cities in Ukraine, or abroad: ‘We work for everyone who identifies as a resident of the Kherson region. And for those who care about what will happen to our region, our city, and our Oblast. Because we very often forget that most of the Kherson region is occupied. And we have several tens of thousands of our fellow citizens there, in the occupied territory. And the role of the media is to constantly remind people that those living under occupation are not traitors, but hostages to the situation.”
Liza Zharkykh argues that it is equally important not to divide people into ‘right’ and ‘wrong’: those who left and those who stayed; those who endured the occupation and those who sought refuge elsewhere; and the media must foster this dialogue: ‘There are no bad and good people. In our case, there is only one ‘bad’ party – our northern neighbors,” says Liza.
Journalists in the Kherson region have two tasks today: to monitor what is happening under the occupation and to monitor the local authorities. It is a very specific situation, made even more difficult by the security situation. But there are other challenges too. Liza says that because people have been living under stress for many years, they may already be negative towards the media, afraid of cameras, photos, and filming. They might think: if a journalist films something, the shelling will be there tomorrow. “You have to talk to people, explain why journalists are doing their job. But at the same time, there are places the media simply cannot access without permission or an escort. You might live in the red zone, but you can’t just go and film a story in the red zone. You won’t get in there without a press officer,” explains Liza.
There is also a staffing issue. Not many people are willing to work as journalists in Kherson or to come here regularly. The ‘Vgoru’ team today is also a kind of microcosm of the Kherson region: some live in the city, some in Ukraine, and some abroad: “The issue of understanding is key — between those working in the media, those who read the media, and those for whom we work.”
A separate part of the conversation concerns the role of the civil society sector. Liza Zharkykh says that civil society organizations and charitable foundations played a key role both during the occupation and after the liberation of the right bank of the Kherson region. They help people, work with international partners, create spaces, organize humanitarian aid, and offer leisure activities and classes for children and adults.
“It seems to me that people often don’t understand how civil society organizations and the authorities cooperate, or whether this cooperation even takes place at all. If there’s humanitarian aid, that’s good; if not, that’s bad. But there’s a lot of work behind the scenes. Civil society organizations and foundations have now taken on much of what the authorities lack the capacity to address,” explains Liza.
The media, for their part, try to cover the work of civil society organizations. Often, it is representatives of civil society organizations who become the media’s sources of information, because they are more frequently in dangerous areas where journalists are not allowed. They talk to people, and people trust them.
At the end of the conversation, we raised the question of whether it is appropriate to talk about the reconstruction of Kherson at this time. Liza Zharkykh responds cautiously: regarding Kherson itself, this is a highly contentious issue: “Here, it is more a question of how to preserve what remains. Perhaps part of life will have to be moved underground – to places where it is harder to destroy. As for the de-occupied part of the region, particularly the northern communities, the situation is different. Without schools, nurseries, and basic infrastructure, communities will not be able to develop. People will not return to villages where there is nowhere to send their children. But every decision on reconstruction must be very carefully considered. We must constantly ask ourselves: Is it appropriate to do this now in this settlement? Will it be appropriate in a year? Because you could carry out expensive repairs, build a modern hospital or school, and in a year this area could become a red zone,” says Liza.
That is precisely why constant monitoring is needed – by the authorities, journalists, and civil society organizations. So that funds are used wisely, especially now when there aren’t many of them.
This conversation isn’t just about problems. It’s about the fact that it’s important to talk about the Kherson region not only in terms of pain, destruction, and danger. There are still people here, initiatives, media, civil society organizations, spaces, mutual support, and a desire to stick together.
We invite Kherson residents to participate in an anonymous survey to better understand the moods, needs, and challenges faced by the Kherson region's population, and to assess the effectiveness of public organizations and authorities' work. Each of your answers is a crucial brick in the foundation of your future recovery. Your answers are completely anonymous and will be used exclusively in a generalized form for analytical purposes.
The interview has been produced by the Kherson Regional Charitable Foundation “Union” with the support of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED). Its contents do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of EED. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in this publication lies entirely with the authors.
