Forging a nation: Ukrainian courage and resistance, one year on

Twice a day, during much of Russia’s eight-month occupation of the southern city of Kherson, a Ukrainian partisan known as “Dollar” went to a secret hiding place, unearthed a cell phone, and briefly called Ukrainian forces with intelligence on Russian military positions.

Using that buried phone was dangerous work. Kherson was the only provincial capital to fall when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine one year ago, on Feb. 24.

This shipbuilding hub on the Dnipro River north of the Black Sea proved its patriotic mettle, as citizens boldly staged anti-Russian street protests for weeks. But when Dollar put together his network of Ukrainian spies, those public protests were finished. He decided to fight back, he says, at a time when activists were being taken by Russians “every day” from their homes and were often tortured. Some disappeared.

Dollar – a heavyset man with short gray hair who managed building projects before the war