A massive explosion shattered the windows of Katerina Valnichuk’s house while she was taking her lunch break. The explosion blew shards of glass and metal that pierced the walls of the house, and smashed the wardrobes in her room. A guided missile launched by the Russians exploded in the yard outside the five-story Soviet building she lived in, killing a postman who was on his way between the buildings to deliver the mail. When her apartment was filled with thick smoke, Valnichuk (22) looked for her partner Vladislav, and found him unconscious and drinking blood from his head.
“We live in a state of war, so there was no sense of fear at that moment,” Valnichuk told the news agency Reuters. “You just realize there was an explosion, and the only thought in your head is ‘I hope we can survive.'”
In the last month, Russia has greatly increased the bombing of the Ukrainian population and the electricity production infrastructure throughout the country. At the heart of Russia’s campaign of destruction now stands Kharkiv – the second largest city in Ukraine.
“Kharkiv is one of the capitals of Ukraine, so it has great symbolic meaning,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told the German Bild earlier this month. Zelensky added that Kiev is “doing everything it can” to prevent Russian forces from crossing the border and occupying the city.
The escalation in Russia’s bombing of Kharkiv was intended to lead to the evacuation of the northeastern city, senior Ukrainian and Western officials said to Bloomberg. Kharkiv, which is only about 30 km from the Russian border, has recently been bombarded with barrages of ballistic missiles, suicide drones and guided weapons. The attack on the city damaged the electricity production infrastructure, and left heaps of ruins and much destruction.
The city, which had a pre-war population of about 1.5 million, has been bombed regularly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but various senior officials who spoke to Bloomberg believe that the recent increase in bombing looks like a coordinated effort to cut off Ukrainian supply lines on the northern front, creating conditions that would make the city untenable. habitable.
Kharkiv’s population mostly speaks Russian and not Ukrainian, which led to claims by Russian nationalists even before the war that the city belonged to Russia. The Kremlin may have believed that resistance to the Russian invasion of the city would be minimal, but attempts to occupy the city in the first weeks of the war failed. The Ukrainian army managed to repel the attack on Kharkiv in what was described as a significant strategic achievement for the government in Kyiv. But now, more than two years since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, living conditions in the city are more dangerous than at the beginning of the war.
Kharkiv was the capital of Ukraine for more than a decade when the country was part of the Soviet Union, and is a major destination for Moscow. Putin’s army aims to create a buffer zone in the east of the country between Ukraine and Russia, a goal presented last month by President Putin, who said the goal is to prevent attacks on the Belgrade region on the Russian side of the border.
The Ukrainian authorities evacuated families with children from 47 villages and towns around Kharkiv due to the escalation. In a message published by the Governor Ola Siniyhov on April 7, it was reported that more than 180 children were evacuated from the area.
The extensive damage caused to the city’s infrastructure due to the continuous attacks forced the authorities to fight so that the residents could survive in the city. The fear is that with the return of winter, there will not be enough electricity in the city to heat the houses, which will result in the residents leaving.
“The Russian occupier, unable to achieve what he wants on the battlefield, is trying to sow panic and chaos in Ukrainian society,” warned the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior in a message published on its Telegram channel.
Ukrainian authorities have increased pressure on allies to help supply energy. The Minister of Energy, German Glushchenko, said that almost all domestic electricity production was destroyed by the latest barrages launched by Russia. “Winter will be a big challenge for us,” Glushchenko told reporters in Brussels. “We are discussing ways to quickly increase electricity output.”
US officials assume that Russia cannot attack Kharkiv without a large-scale mobilization of troops. The White House is also trying to find ways to strengthen the power systems in Kharkiv, senior officials told Bloomberg.
Russia lacks the manpower necessary for a decisive breakthrough in the war. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said it plans to establish two new combined armies of 14 divisions and 16 brigades by the end of the year. Until now, the army expanded its ranks through conscripts who volunteered to serve at the front in exchange for the promise of generous wages. Now the Russian Ministry of Defense is trying to recruit at least 250 thousand additional soldiers in 2024.
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2024-04-17 14:28:48