by Lorenzo Cremonesi, sent to Kharkiv
Bombing in the second Ukrainian city Mayor Igor Terekhov: We are Europeans. I salute the courage of those who remain and continue to work for them
The roar of the explosions continues, including last night, the floor and window panes have been shaking for the entire time we have been writing this article. There was no mercy on the Russian bombing raids and the fury with which they ravaged Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, for over a month. Not the suburbs, not the decadent barracks of the Soviet era and the surrounding villages like in Kyiv, but the historic center, against the buildings of the Tsarist era and also against the shopping centers made of glass and steel, which have become a thorn in the side of Putin’s vassals’ efforts for these overly westernized ones Ukrainians, whom he regards as Russians in every respect. Arriving by train in the total blackout of the long journey from Kyiv, it may seem for a moment that the sunny square in front of the station and the car traffic all around create the illusion that descriptions of the devastation may be exaggerated. During the negotiations in Istanbul, there was concrete talk of peace for the first time, which may be the reason why there have been fewer alarms in the last three days than before and the kiosks in the parks have resumed selling coffee, says the employee Dimitri der community that took a day off to guide me.
They wanted to destroy us
for warning a civil defense volunteer who just got off the train that once went to Mariupol, but now stops much earlier to raise the alarm: here the weapons of Putin’s aviation were extremely bad, they wanted to destroy us on all routes . We’ve understood this since late February, when they razed the sheds of our famous KhTZ tractor factories, as if to revive those of the T34 tanks that Stalin used to win the war. The first stage inevitably leads to the vast Piazza della Libert, where the Municipality and Opera buildings, hit by rockets directly on the roofs and then burned floor by floor down to the pavement of reddish granite pavement, now represent indelible evidence of futile brutality the aggression.
rockets to the head
It was just after eight o’clock on that first morning in March that I will remember for the rest of my life. I was checking my watch because I was late for my shift as a security guard in the piazza when the two Russian missiles passed a few tens of meters above my head. They weren’t planes, now I can see them well. The first slid into the roof of the town hall with a deafening roar. The fire started immediately, I ran and saw dozens of dead and wounded. Some were unrecognizable, says Slavic, 26, who has since lost his job and now sleeps with 200 other people in the subway station overlooking the square. The 44yearold Sidoi (his nom de guerre, meaning gray hair), the local officer in charge of defending the territorial militias, instead tells the story of the resistance struggle. We now know that Putin wanted to seize Kyiv immediately to eliminate Zelenskyy, but at the same time his initial strategy also focused on Kharkiv, which is less than forty kilometers from the border with Russia. They could hardbomb us, destroying infrastructure and relying on our city’s historical cultural and economic ties to Russia for support. But he had underestimated us, he had reckoned without the innkeeper, because even the Russians who were closest to Moscow after the attack became Ukrainians within a few hours. When we responded, he gave the green light for retaliation to be as punitive as possible. The consequences are explained by Mayor Igor Terekhov, who speaks of hundreds of deaths (the exact number is top secret) and 1450 buildings (1200 of them with more than nine floors) ended up in rubble and ash, as well as 69 schools, 53 kindergartens, 15 hospitals and adds that 30 percent of the 1.5 million inhabitants have been displaced. I salute the courage of those who remain. For them I continue to serve public services. We are Europeans, Putin needs to know that we will not return to tyranny; He even tried to hit us remotely with missiles fired from Black Sea Fleet ships, he tells us in his office, which has been moved to a secret area of the city.
Advance cards
Sedoi and the local military cadres show on the geographical maps the directions of the Russian advance, which already on February 28 from the villages of Lyptsy and Cherkasky Tyshsky reached the urban air of the metropolis and entered the workingclass Pitikakty district. They are stopped by the urban guerrillas and the newly arrived British and American antitank missiles help to smash the columns of armored vehicles. The Russian reaction was not long in coming: longrange missiles reduced Sumska Street, which used to be the shopping center with cafes and fashion shops, to rubble. Shopping centers burn and the imposing university building falls apart. The bombs even damaged the alarm system and its sirens, so citizens are now being asked to download a special app that manages alarms remotely. But in midMarch the battle turned into a trench warfare, the resistance pushed the Russians back about twenty kilometers, the encirclement attempt failed and Putin responded with rockets and airstrikes. Like yesterday afternoon, when we, along with many others, ran into one of the subway stations while the roar of a lowflying jet sliced through the sky behind the burnedout church building.
March 29, 2022 (Modification March 30, 2022 | 00:04)
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