KHERSON, Ukraine (AFP) — "Hands in the air! Documents out!" shouted Ukrainian policemen as they leveled their guns at two suspected collaborators moments after they docked their boat near the city of Kherson.

The two men held at gunpoint came from an island on the Dnipro River in the proverbial grey zone separating the Ukrainian-controlled western bank from the Russian-occupied east.

Since pushing out the Russians, the river is now the new, major frontline of the war in southern Ukraine.

A barrage of missiles halts the impromptu interrogation as the police and suspected collaborators duck for cover.

Throughout Kherson, officers inspect identification papers, question residents and search cars hoping to smoke out collaborators — some of whom they fear are still providing information to their old masters.

"Some people lived here for more than eight months, working for the Russian regime. But now we have information and documents about each of them," regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych tells AFP.
"Our police know all about them. Each and every one of them will be punished," he adds.

Locals help

Following Kherson's liberation, residents were quick to tear down billboards glorifying Russia and replace them with banners hailing the Ukrainian victory in Kherson.

Other signs calling for locals to help in the hunt for collaborators also began to pop up.

"Send us information about the traitors here," one of them reads, with a QR code linking potential informants to an app and a phone number.

For the regional governor, the campaign "helps us identify them, know if they are on the territory we control."

"We get most of our information from informal conversations with locals… We also analyze social media and monitor the internet," Andriy Kovanyi, the head of public relations for Kherson regional police, tells AFP.

To date, more than 130 people have been arrested in the region of Kherson for collaborating with the Russian occupiers, Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin says.

The search for collaborators comes as Russian forces on the opposite bank of the Dnipro continue to pummel the city with artillery and missile strikes — targeting Kherson energy infrastructure or residential areas and killing several civilians in recent weeks.