How an American hid by the Russians in Kherson for 8 months survived

KHERSON, Ukraine – He stayed inside to evade Russian patrols, watching movies on his laptop.

On sunny days he strolled in a small enclosed courtyard.

Afraid of being seen, he peeked out cautiously from behind the curtains, watching the Russians crossing the street.

This is Timothy Morales, an American English teacher, who hid from the Russian military and secret police during the eight-month occupation of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, fearing his nationality would make him a target.

It only came to light after the Ukrainian army liberated the city last week.

“I had fleeting moments of despairMorales said in an interview in a central square in Kherson where he now walks openly with yellow and blue ribbons, Ukraine’s national colors, tied to his tweed coat.

“But I knew this day would come at some point.”

The thud of artillery fired into the city from Russian positions across the Dnieper River still rattles the windows, and Kherson remains a gloomy and dark city, no electricity, water or heating.

Most of its residents fled months ago, and the retreating Russians took anything of value with them.

By dawn, many of the remaining civilians form huge queues to get bread or fill plastic jugs with water.

Only on Tuesday did the first convoys with humanitarian aid arrive, their trucks parked in the square to deliver boxes of flour, soap, wipes and sweets such as instant milkshakes.

But for Morales, 56, a former university professor, the worst was behind him:

no more anxious games of cat and mouse with the Russians.

Raised in Banbury, England, he had lived in Oklahoma City for years teaching English literature and had opened an English school in Kherson before the Russian invasion in February.

In the war’s chaotic first days, as Russian tanks battled the few Ukrainian troops in the region and a meager but quickly overrun Volunteer Defense Force,

Morales was trapped behind Russian lines.

He once tried to escape by taking a route north, he said, but turned when he saw tanks firing along the road.

He managed to send his 10-year-old daughter to safety, traveling with his ex-wife, but failed to do so.

“I didn’t want to take any chances with my passport,” he said of Russia’s military checkpoints.

He had done nothing illegal, under the laws of any nation.

But the Kremlin has portrayed the United States and its allies, who are arming Ukrainian troops, as the real enemy in this war, blaming them for battlefield setbacks.

Morales feared that Russian troops would arrest him simply because he was an American.

He has become a survivor and a stealthy witness of Russia’s onslaught, its harsh occupation and its failed attempt to assimilate parts of Ukraine and eliminate all opposition.

The Russians stormed Kherson in early March and soon soldiers were patrolling the streets and police officers Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the KGB, was looking for members of an underground pro-Ukrainian guerrilla movement.

Morales’ life was squeezed into two apartments, his own and his ex-wife’s, furtive walks between the two places and the patio, a pleasant space with cherry and nut trees behind high walls, hidden from view of the street.

For two months, he said, he dared not venture beyond the courtyard.

Relatives of his ex-wife, who is Ukrainian, brought him food and sometimes he shopped at a grocery store where he met the clerk, a teenager he trusted would not betray him for his views pro-Ukrainian.

Shopping trips were an exception to her usual life. cloistered.

There was a borderline situation.

In September, he went out into the courtyard and saw Russian soldiers pointing their rifles through the wire mesh of a gate.

He ran inside, closing the door behind him.

A search party soon arrived.

A neighbor yelled through the door that he had no choice but to open.

He did so and came face to face with an officer of the Federal Security Service, also known by its Russian acronym, FSB.

Morales, who speaks Russian but not well enough to pass for a local, told the officer he was an Irishman named Timothy Joseph, who taught English in the city and had lost his passport.

The secret police are gone.

The neighbor, an elderly woman, helped with the ruse and told the secret police they had no reason suspect him.

“That changed my perspective,” Morales said.

“Before I was careful. So I became paranoid.”

The FSB interrogation, he said, was “the high point or low point” of his ordeal.

He said he only ran away because “they weren’t the smartest people in the world”.

He fled to another apartment and did not return to the research site until after the city was liberated, in case the secret policy returned.

He spent the time watching various hundreds of movies which he had downloaded onto his laptop before the invasion.

When he walked the streets he feared meeting acquaintances, especially among the elderly, who seemed less aware of the danger from the Russians and who sometimes shouted friendly greetings, putting him in grave danger.

No friends or neighbors have betrayed him.

After going into hiding, he was able to resume teaching English online, using a neighbor’s Internet connection to connect with students in other parts of Ukraine and other countries.

“It kept me sane,” he said he was able to work online, even though he had no means to get paid.

He was concerned when he saw a Russian, possibly a civilian administrator in the occupation government, move his family into an apartment abandoned by fleeing Ukrainians in a building across the street, increasing the risk of discovery.

But over time, he also noticed something that was becoming obvious to other Kherson residents:

the Russian army was dilapidated.

Discipline was breaking down, soldiers appeared scruffier, and more often drove stolen local cars rather than military vehicles.

“Over time, they’ve gotten more unkempt and messy,” she said.

Over the past month, he has noticed that soldiers who had stolen expensive cars, such as BMWs or Mercedes-Benzes, had taken them on barges away from Kherson, further from the front line.

The disappearance of the looted expensive cars, she said, “gave me hope”.

In the week before the release, he received no news after the power outage.

On Friday he saw a car go by with a Ukrainian flag flying from an antenna.

“I knew the Russians were gone,” he said.

Morales joined the celebration in the city’s central square on Friday, waving to Ukrainian soldiers as they entered the city without a fight, driving pickup trucks and jeeps.

As happy as he is with the city’s liberation, he said, he plans to leave now.

“I need to put some space between myself and what happened here,” he said.

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