Everything was ready for a big party. On March 27, Airport Manager Vitaly Kucheruk wanted to present the completely renovated runway to the public. A new lighting system, a new instrument landing system and a new surface had been installed in the previous months at a cost of 30 million euros.
But a month before the inauguration, Russia invaded Ukraine. The troops also occupied Kherson and the airport located near the village of Chornobaivka.
“Everything was gone from one day to the next. I put my heart and soul into this airport. Suddenly there was nothing,” Kucheruk said in May.
The Russians had set up a command post at Kherson Airport after repeatedly bombing it to make it unusable for the Ukrainians.
In turn, this important and heavily armed Russian position has been repeatedly attacked by the Ukrainian army over the past eight months. And as a result, the airport was badly affected.
In the meantime, the city on the Dnipro estuary has been liberated by Ukrainian troops and the Russians have withdrawn. And now what remains of the airport formerly served by Bees Airlines, Ukraine International, Ryanair, Sky Up, Windrose Airlines, Pegasus and Turkish Airlines is revealed. It’s not much anymore.
A photo reporter from Radio Free Europe visited Chornobaivka late last week. He also looked at the airport at Cherson. His photos paint a picture of devastation. Not only destroyed Russian war material like howitzers and tanks at the airport. The terminal and the rest of the infrastructure were also badly affected.
The reconstruction is therefore likely to be expensive. But how did airport boss Kucheruk say in May? When the war is over, “then we’ll work quickly.”
This article was written by Stefan Eiselin
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After the recapture of Cherson, the question for military expert Mike Martin is not what Russia will do now – it is Ukraine’s turn for him. On Twitter he shows how the war could continue. His guess: Ukraine is targeting the “gravitational center of Putin’s credibility.”
The original of this article “After the Russian army has withdrawn, the extent of the destruction becomes visible” comes from aeroTelegraph.
