But on Friday, March 11, the last food warehouse in the city closed, Igor said. And people have become desperate.
Some citizens have tried to buy large amounts of food that they sell to people in need. Others have turned to looting.
One video shared with Insider shows a man duct-taped to a tree in Kherson as people assault him, slapping and kicking him on his bare bottom as his pants sit around his ankles.
The man in the video, Igor said, was a security guard who got caught trying to steal food from a store nearby. People in the streets took him and tied him to the tree last week as punishment.
Insider could not independently verify this account, but an additional source told Insider that she's heard of the tactic being used in response to accused looters across Ukraine. Igor said it is because there is no longer a police presence to respond to low-level crimes.
"There is no one to punish them," Igor said of the accused looters. "This [punishment] is done by ordinary citizens."
Igor said he isn't sure how the accused thieves free themselves from the displays of vigilante justice. He hasn't seen anyone stuck outside for longer than a day and posited that compassionate passersby eventually un-tape them from their posts, or family members come to rescue them.
But long hours trapped outside can turn dangerous in the below-freezing temperatures that are currently plaguing Kherson.
Average temperatures, both day and night, fall below freezing, Igor said, which makes standing in long lines for food that may never materialize particularly challenging.
Desperation among hungry civilians, already in full swing, is likely to intensify in the coming days. Igor estimated on Friday, March 11, 2022, that there was enough food left in the city to last one more week; perhaps only days for those who no longer have cash to spend.
Kherson's mayor echoed Igor's estimates, telling NBC News on March 10 that the city had only one week of food left.
Once his family's reserves run out, Igor said he plans to visit nearby rivers to fish.
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"We still have fishermen," he said. "There are absolutely no authorities in the city, and no one forbids fishing."
Gas and medicine have become scarce in the city, as well. Igor said he's witnessed lines at gas stations that are hundreds of cars long. He said a taxi driver told him that he waited eight hours to get only 20 liters of gas at twice the normal cost.
In a video posted to Facebook on Sunday, Kherson's mayor said the city is running out of gas, medications, and food.
Defiant demonstrations
Since the city was seized, scores of Ukrainians have taken to the streets daily to protest the Russian occupation. Earlier this month, the city's mayor estimated that nearly 2,000 people attended a protest in Liberty Square.
Over the weekend, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest against rumors that Russia intends to turn the Kherson region into a breakaway republic. A senior Ukrainian official in the area said the Russians are aiming to create the People's Republic of Kherson that's independent from Ukraine, according to CNN.
Igor said he knows several people who have attended the public gatherings to demonstrate Ukrainian solidarity. He posited that the wide-scale protests serve a dual purpose, with Ukrainians taking to the streets in an attempt to prevent the Russians from filming propaganda in Kherson.
Igor accused the Russians of staging fake, pro-Russia demonstrations to give the impression that Ukrainian people are eager to be a part of the country currently invading them, bringing in Crimeans to act the part of grateful civilians. In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, and continues to occupy the peninsula.
The Russians, Igor said, prominently distribute food to these alleged interlopers to try and entice Ukrainians to join them.
It puts Kherson's residents in an impossible position. Because of the Russian presence in the city, which has Kherson occupied on all continental sides, the only way out of Ukraine for the city's residents is to go to Russia via Crimea — a Faustian bargain that Igor said few are likely to make.
Hopes for "green corridors," or a humanitarian path for civilian evacuees and assistance, have disappeared. The demilitarized zones are meant to offer safe passage for humanitarian assistance to enter besieged cities and for fleeing refugees to leave.
Russia has also attacked Kherson's telecom towers, bringing the city to its knees by controlling what information is disseminated and isolating it from the rest of the world.
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Igor, like many other Ukrainians, uses the messaging app Telegram — considered a more secure option than some other messaging apps — to communicate with his cousin in New York each day; a last link to the outside world.
His cousin waits anxiously for updates from her many family members stuck in the country. She told Insider she feels helpless watching the war unfold from thousands of miles away.
Burying childhood friends
Igor's current goal, he said, is to get his family to safety, and soon; perhaps to Poland, the Czech Republic, or even the US.
He told Insider his biggest fear is losing his family.
"There is no greater fear," he said.
Even if he can get his loved ones out, Igor said he may stay behind in Ukraine, taking care of his family's remaining business and continuing to help others who are in need.
In the last week, the 20-year-old told Insider he's buried seven of his friends, many of whom he'd known since childhood, but said he did not want to discuss the details of their deaths.
"I just want their sacrifices not to be in vain," he said.
Frustrations in Kherson are growing as residents decry the lack of attention on their grim circumstances. Accounts out of the embattled Mariupol and a still-resilient Kyiv lead nightly news coverage across the globe. But reports of life in Kherson have been far more scarce.
Igor said it sometimes feels as though the world has forgotten about his city.
But while food — and hope — continue to dwindle in Kherson, the defiant Ukrainian spirit persists. The city's mayor on Sunday said the Ukrainian flag still flies outside his city office.
"What hope can there be?" Igor said.
"We will win anyway. Nobody doubts it."
Translations by Oleksandr Vynogradov.