By Serhiy Petrov
Today, the Muscovites did not stop in the evening, they fired in the middle of the night and quite a lot, for night shelling. The shelling continued in the morning, but with less activity than yesterday. Saltivka, Oleksiyivka, Obriy (Horizon), Rohan, KhTZ, New Houses, Pyatihatky, KhAI were fired upon. The shells also landed in Derhachi and Chuguiv. In the morning, one person was killed and three others were injured. A grocery store, ATB, and a nearby pharmacy were damaged due to the shelling of a trolleybus stop in the eastern part of the KhTZ. During the day, the most destruction took place in Velyka Danylivka, a privately built area of the city. Formerly it was a village, but it was incorporated into the city in 1963, when the last major expansion of the city’s borders took place in the 20th century. Velyka Danylivka was struck by a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), which destroyed many houses.
In general, the day passed rather quietly, although the air raid siren about the threat of shelling was constantly going off. The pig-dogs became more active in the evening, directing most of their shelling at Northern Saltivka and the numbered microdistrict of Saltivka.
If you do not take into account the areas most affected by the shelling and where the destruction is very bad, as well as the city center, where missile and air strikes damaged many buildings (for example, the gaping hole which can be seen since March 1st in the Regional State Administration building, which, incidentally, is an architectural monument), the rest of the city lives quietly. However, Kharkiv residents can hear the explosions very clearly throughout the city, as Kharkiv is built on a radial scheme that allows loud sounds to spread to different parts of the city. Of course, one can easily notice the absence of public transit and very little traffic on the streets, as well as the difficulty in moving around the city on foot.
The largest library in eastern Ukraine, the VH Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library, was damaged by the shelling of the city center: the building was damaged from the outside, windows were broken, some furniture and an antique grand piano were damaged. The books are intact, but they require a specific climate-controlled environment, without which some of them may be lost. Therefore, the library has turned to people and volunteers for help. Similarly, the boarding school for the blind, near the Regional State Administration building, is also at risk of losing a valuable Braille library collection that needs to be saved immediately.
The city has chain stores and supermarkets which are open and working. Kiosks and small shops are closed. In areas where there is no electricity, nothing works, of course. Therefore, those who remain in those areas have to travel several kilometers in one direction to get to those areas where electricity is available and supermarkets are open and working. In general, the city’s food supply has been stabilized, but everything depends on the chain. Smaller store chains have less regular deliveries, so they are practically cleared of everything on the first day after a delivery – because word-of-mouth works). In the areas under fire, the choice of products is smaller and the queues are longer. In addition, the areas with the highest population density in the city are the ones under fire.
People line up for humanitarian aid, of which sometimes there is plenty, and you can even get something there if you arrive early; otherwise – no chance. When you go shopping at a store, you may be asked, “Where did you get humanitarian aid?” Queues and aid – this is now part of our city’s everyday life. We seem to have been thrown 30 years into the past all of a sudden.
However, there is positive news – the city is beginning to reopen, mainly in the shopping malls that were not affected by the shelling, and here and there both in the central part of the city and in other places – clothing, household goods, electronics and other stores as well. Life is gradually adjusting and shifting from a standstill, rebuilding the logistics destroyed by the war.
But in the region everything is not so good. The situation in Izyum remains very difficult – heavy fighting persists in that area. The gas distribution station was damaged in the last 24 hours. It is impossible to evacuate people from the ruined city, as it has suffered great destruction. Neither is it possible to bring in humanitarian aid. The city is cold, without light, heat, water, food and medicine. The exact situation there is unknown, as communication with that area is problematic.
Muscovites fired on one of the enterprises of the Shebelinsk gas field complex, which caused a fire at the gas treatment plant in the village of Hlazunivka. The control center was completely destroyed. Miraculously, no one was killed because the crew went out for a smoke, but one worker was injured. The explosion damaged houses in the neighboring village of Milova, which the racists fired on just a few days ago… People were evacuated from nearby villages to the town of Pervomaisk. By the way, more than a thousand people have already been evacuated to that town, although it is not far from what is perceived as the front line.
In addition, they fired yesterday on the village of Novyi Korotych, located right next to the bombed Korotych airfield; the shelling killed one man and damaged a number of buildings. And today, during the Muscovite shelling of Pyatihatki, an employee of Feldman Ecopark was killed; he had come there to feed the animals. Some animals have died also; some were killed by the shelling itself while others died from the stress caused by the shelling.
The city of Chuhuiv, which the Russians are trying to force their way into, has become a closed city, in order to prevent Russian sabotage and reconnaissance operatives from penetrating the city. No one is allowed into the city without a local residency document unless they accompany a humanitarian cargo.
The situation near Lyman and Slovyansk is becoming more dangerous. At the Brusyn Station near Lyman, a train which was to evacuate people out of Lyman was fired upon. One conductor was killed and another was injured. (This was not the only case of shelling on evacuation missions. A group of people evacuating from Mariupol were shelled and had to stop in the Muscovite-occupied town of Berdyansk. A number of people were killed and wounded reportedly.)
By the way, the Muscovites fired rockets at the Svyatogorsk Lavra of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), which damaged the buildings of the complex, smashed windows and doors in some of the buildings. In 2014, this monastery was a base for Muscovites and Girkins during the occupation of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Weapons were also stored there, which was facilitated by the local priests and monks of the ROC. And now the Russian world has caught up to the Russian world. From Moscow friendly fire, with “love and the whole breadth of one’s soul”!
Marauding and atrocities continue. Yes, a family with a three-year-old child who was trying to leave Balakliya was brutally shot by the Muscovites. And in the village of Petrivs’ke (the name comes from the fortress of St. Peter of the Ukrainian branch) of the Balakliya municipal community, the Muscovites entered the local ambulance station and emergency room, stole valuable medical equipment and a car battery, and smashed the rest of the equipment and building.
The situation is not the best in the occupied territories of Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia, where Muscovite troops beat people on the streets, seize cars and other valuables, and take them away to parts unknown. In the region of Zaporizhia, another city mayor has disappeared – this time it is Yevhen Matveev, the mayor of Dnipro Rudny. The chairman of the Melitopol district council Serhiy Pryma was also taken.
Members of the Kherson City Council have joined the deputies to the Kherson Regional Council in sending the well-known greeting “Go Fuck Yourself!” to the Muscovites. It is gratifying that protests and resistance continue in Kherson and Melitopol. The people in these cities are really tough. It can be said without exaggeration that they are heroes who are fighting the occupation regime using non-violent resistance. They are not intimidated by troops and even machine gun fire in their direction!
But, unfortunately, we are losing connection with many newly occupied cities, towns and villages. It is difficult to obtain first-hand information from those areas. In Melitopol, the local Gauleiter of the occupation administration, Galina Danilchenko, from the coalition of assholes has declared that it was necessary to yield to the new power and included the Muscovite channels, explaining that this is the new reality and honest information. However, in the city of Nova Kakhovka, the occupying power is represented by a Russian military commander because a local Gauleiter could not be found.
Undoubtedly positive news is the nomination of Kharkiv poet, novelist, musician, singer and volunteer Serhiy Zhadan for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Zhadan is Kharkiv’s cultural everything!
Today, the Darwin Award goes to the combat calculators of the Muscovite Thor SAM, which directed friendly fire on its UAV of an unidentified model near Kharkiv, after it was dispatched to conduct reconnaissance on our soldiers’ positions. At the time, the Muscovites reported that they had shot down a rocket, but the truth came out after the flight path was analyzed and they decided not to divulge on the situation. What “sad” news! Let there be more such accidents of all kinds!
We thank and support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the Territorial Defense, as well as volunteers, doctors, rescuers and communal workers. Let’s support each other. Believe in yourself and bring the day of victory closer to each in their own place!
