“Oh, it's like February all over again,” says Sasha, a Kharkiv resident responding to the air strikes on the city. It is a very common phrase for Kharkivans now. They recall the first days of the invasion when Russia tried to invade Ukraine along the entire border and used all possible weapons to break through the defenses.
This spring, the Russian army began to break through again, taking advantage of Ukraine's lack of weapons, including the delay in financial aid from the United States. This was felt throughout Ukraine's eastern border, from the Sumy region to Kramatorsk, and became especially evident in the attacks on Kharkiv, because this city is located very close to the Russian border, and it is the border regions in Russia that regularly receive drone attacks on military infrastructure. As I wrote earlier, the Kremlin had a plan to create a buffer zone between the Russian and Ukrainian borders to prevent attacks on Russian territory.
The military experts see the main threats in the fact that the Russian army will take the heights near Kharkiv and therefore will be able to shell the city with artillery, i.e. Grad systems, guided bombs, and mortars. This means that it will be almost impossible to defend against these shots, as air defense systems do not shoot down such systems.
Rymarska street in Kharkiv city center, May 2024.
I visited Kharkiv several days ago and saw with my own eyes the traces of destruction from heavy shelling. The city is visibly devastated, many residents have started to evacuate again, as in 2022. At the same time, there are a large number of people with disabilities in the city, those who lost their arms or legs as a result of the shelling. War leaves cruel wounds.
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