Vladimir Putin’s first major city capture was the Ukrainian port of Kherson.

However, in the last 48 hours, domestic forces have launched a heroic retaliation that embodies the spirit of their country.

And, according to Markian Lubkivskyi, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, “I believe that today the city will be fully under the control of Ukrainian armed forces.”

“Now that we have completed the operation in the Kyiv region, other armed forces are focusing on the southern part, attempting to liberate Kherson and other Ukrainian cities.”

Kherson was taken over by the Russians on March 2, but residents have been protesting daily in the city’s central Liberty Square.

On Monday, a student in her early twenties was present during a peaceful protest when a stun grenade exploded and gunfire erupted.

“Residents had been chanting, ‘Go home,'” she said, capturing it on video. People took flight. There were smoke clouds.

“I couldn’t breathe and had to flee for my life.” CNN later obtained video of a pensioner bleeding from a leg wound.

A second resident, however, stated that the protesters would return the next day to confront the Russians.

Russian forces were seen responding with tear gas grenades and warning shots in videos.

Meanwhile, a leaked letter from an FSB spy agency whistleblower claims the residents’ defiance will result in their kidnapping and deportation to Russia.

“I’m not leaving,” brave Nadya, a shop worker in her twenties, told me. We are a strong people who are getting stronger. I’m staying here to prove to Kherson that he is Ukrainian.”

The brave women, like their city, are unafraid.