It's ten in the morning and loud techno music is blasting out of the church.

The song is about dead Russians, wrecked tanks and sunken ships.

This is heard by a group of silent pensioners who are queuing in front of the church.

They came to charge their phones, pick up medicine and groceries.

In the "Church of the Protective Mantle of the Holy Mother of God" in Cherson, all those who lack the most essential things are helped.

Relief supplies are stacked next to the unadorned church building made of light-colored sand-lime bricks, the boxes are soaked from the drizzle.

Robert Putzbach

Editor in Politics

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It has been less than two weeks since the last Russian soldiers withdrew from the city of Cherson in southern Ukraine, which had previously been occupied for almost nine months.

When they left, the Russians blew up bridges, radio masts and a power plant.

Almost all shops are closed and many streets are deserted.

Since the withdrawal, the Russians, who are now on the other side of the Dnipro River, have been shooting at the city every day.

Especially in the southernmost part of the city, where the church is located, there are many impacts these days.

Father Serhiy Chudynowych looks exhausted.

Even when he greets you, he hardly manages to smile.

Chudynowych has only been back in his church for a week; he returned to Cherson three days after the Russian withdrawal.

Wearing his thick winter jacket, he makes his way through the chapel, where donations are piling up in every corner.

The church also appears unusually simple from the inside - especially in comparison to the many magnificent, gold-decorated buildings of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was under the control of the Moscow Patriarch Cyril until May of this year.

Chudynovych's Church, on the other hand, belongs to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Instead of candles and incense, he has music, medicine and diapers - because people need that more urgently.

Interrogations became more brutal over time

In a small adjoining room, Chudynowych begins to talk, in Ukrainian, which is particularly noticeable in the mostly Russian-speaking Cherson.

He reports on the first days of the war, when shortly after the start of the Russian invasion, the first tanks with the letter "Z" rolled through the city center of Kherson.

Until the reconquest, Cherson was the first and only regional capital that Putin was able to bring under his control in the nine-month war.

During the first weeks of the occupation, the military chaplain held funeral services for killed Ukrainian soldiers in his church.

At that time, numerous people said goodbye wrapped in blue and yellow flags.

The ceremonies were streamed live on Facebook by Chudynowych.

He was then intercepted in front of the church at the end of March and taken to a cellar for questioning.

The priest remembers his kidnapping as follows: At first the Russians were polite and only asked questions, but over time the interrogation became more and more brutal.

The soldiers told him they suspected him of sabotage and urged him to cooperate with the occupiers from now on.

Then they beat his chest with a club.

They choked him and threatened to shoot him.

When he asked for water, the soldiers gave him vodka.

Finally, they stripped the priest, pinned him to his knees, and threatened to anally rape him with a club.

Chudynovych says he was terrified at that moment and had a panic attack.

In order to end the torment, he finally agreed to work with the occupiers.