He was approached by Russian troops shortly after the invasion began last Thursday, but Ukrainian forces kept the Russians at bay for three days.
Then, on Sunday, Russian troops entered the city, according to regional governor Oleh Sinekhubov.
What happened further provides evidence of the fierce resistance that Russian troops are facing in Ukrainian cities – and why they have not yet progressed as fast as experts initially feared they would.
“Ukraine’s armed forces are eliminating the enemy,” Sinekhubov assured Kharkiv residents that day.
Videos uploaded on social media give a rare idea of the clashes on the city’s streets.
A series of videos uploaded on social media shows an attempt by a Russian unit to advance to an important airport and arms factory in northeastern Kharkiv. The airport at the Kharkov State Aircraft Company is small – with only one runway – but could be a useful springboard for the Russians.
CNN geolocated and authenticated the videos.
The first video, taken by a resident, shows a column of Russian troops surrounding military vehicles crawling on the roadway that ends near the airport.
“There are two [military vehicles] as far as I can see, “says someone in the video.” Third infantry crawls with automatic weapons, getting ready. ”
Suddenly a shot is heard and seen. A Russian soldier quickly knelt down and fired a rocket fired from his shoulder at the area where the shooting appeared to come from.
A second video, taken after the shooting, shows military vehicles reversing in an apparent retreat. Russian troops are seen huddled behind their vehicles.
A Reuters reporter who went to the scene after the shooting shot a video showing an abandoned Russian convoy and a significant amount of blood staining snow on the ground nearby.
A Reuters journalist spoke to a resident identified as Eugene, who told them that at least one Russian soldier had been killed there.
“After we killed this one, the others fled,” Eugene told Reuters, pointing to bloodstains in the snow. He told the journalist that there were between 12 and 15 people in the group.
“They will not take Kharkiv,” he insisted. “They ran away from where they came from. They don’t have good navigation, as you can see. Nothing works for them. They came and hid behind the houses.”
Retreat troops appear to have been halted by another attack. A column of vehicles – of the same type as those seen in previous videos – appears to be lit in another video.
“This is how we congratulate the Russian army bitch,” someone is heard shouting in the video. “Come here and blindfold him. And this will happen to everyone who came to us here, on Kharkiv land. ”
It is not possible to say categorically that the Russian trucks seen on fire are the same as those taken in an attempt to reach the airport, but they are in the same place, of the same type and have the same markings.
Another video, apparently shot later at the site of the abandoned military convoy – the vehicles are no longer on fire – shows the involvement of Ukrainian troops.
During the shootout, a Ukrainian soldier came out of the wall and was seen firing a rocket fired from his shoulder.
Watching the video, retired General Mark Hertling, a national security analyst and military man for CNN, said the Ukrainian unit was equipped with rocket-propelled grenades.
You see this force, that little squad of about 10 boys, the man furthest away from us shoots multiple grenades, he’s fired from my counting about five of them, he hands over the launcher to another man, they reload and he’s ready to shoot again, “he said.
“And everyone else, look at the cool, calm, collective approach of these soldiers under fire, they are not afraid, they are ready to kick their ass,” he added.
Later, another video showed Ukrainian soldiers around the convoy, as if digging through abandoned cars. Sporadic shots are heard and some Ukrainian forces move along a wall in the background.
“Slava Ukraini,” says someone in the video (“Glory to Ukraine”).
Quick response
But on Monday, Russian troops returned to the northeastern suburbs of Kharkov and resumed their attack on the city.
Numerous videos on social networks, geolocated by CNN, show rockets exploding close to each other in a residential area of the Saltivka neighborhood, near a supermarket. One showed a rocket booster stuck on the sidewalk while civilians watched.
“Today is more hellish in Kharkiv than it was yesterday,” Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Irina Venediktov, said on Facebook.
According to the Kharkiv City Council, one civilian woman was killed and 31 people – 15 servicemen and 16 civilians – were injured in the latest shelling.
In recent days, the city council has registered seven dead – two servicemen and five civilians – and 44 wounded, including 20 servicemen.
“Kharkov has just been subjected to massive shelling of Grad! Dozens of victims, “said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser at Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, on Monday, describing the situation there as a” nightmare “.
Russia says it is not targeting civilians.