Shortly after Russian forces captured Kherson in March, a group of civilians detained a Russian pilot, and a local city council member, unsure of what to do with them, decided to release him.The regional capital was held for eight months until Russian officials announced a retreat in November, delivering a humiliating blow to President Vladimir Putin's war effort and placing the city back in Ukraine's hands.Illia Karamalikov, a nightclub owner and city councilman, had organized civilian patrols after the Russian takeover resulted in chaos, according to The New York Times.On March 15, Karamalikov got a call that one of the patrol groups had found and detained a Russian pilot who was covered in mud and stumbling.The Times interviewed over a dozen people in Kherson about Karamalikov, and they all agree with his decision, saying that to keep the pilot in a city dominated by Russian forces would've put civilians at risk."