By Serhiy Petrov
Another day of the Muscovite attack on the city. It was almost indistinguishable from the previous day, at least in terms of the intensity of the shelling. I don’t even know how to describe it, or whether it’s good or bad. It is what it is…
The night was relatively calm, there was little to no shelling. Shooting resumed only in the morning. After 8 am, a shell hit another Karazin University campus building. It used to be the Academy of Public Administration Under the President of Ukraine, but has since become one of the university’s departments.
One gets the impression that the Muscovites want to destroy the entire university campus, methodically and systematically. It’s definitely some kind of official target. A residential building nearby was also hit. Unfortunately, one person was killed, but two were rescued. One of them, a man, was found alive under the school’s rubble only in the evening, after a whole day of digging through the ruins. This is truly a wonderful story of our rescuers!
Mitigation of the consequences of the fire in the Barabashovo market continued through the night and much of the day. The market has been completely burned down. The fire also damaged several residential buildings, but, thanks to the firefighters’ efforts, it did not spread to the surrounding residential area. Many businesses have been destroyed, and people will need to start all over again after the war…
It was generally quiet in the daytime, but the orcs got active again in the evening. I wouldn’t say the shelling was too intense, it was basically very similar to yesterday. But the number of air raid sirens spiked. They fired quite chaotically on Saltivka, Oleksiyivka, Pavlove Pole, Rohan’, and the Kharkiv Tractor Plant neighborhood. The shelling was quite disoderly. Derhachi and Chuhuiv got hit as well.
The city is gradually getting used to living in these conditions, but very few people are out and about. Obviously, no-one leaves their house unless they absolutely have to. At the same time, some businesses in the service industry have opened—more and more pharmacies are open, as well as beauty salons. People need to have their hair and nails groomed, even during war time.
According to City Council reports, shelling has damaged more than 700 buildings in the city, with the severity of damage ranging from minor like broken glass to partial or total destruction of the buildings.
The most difficult situation is around Izyum, where the fighting continues. However, Russists (editor’s note: Russian fascists) have been deploying trainee units there, which indicates a poor state of affairs in the infantry… As a result of shelling in one of the villages near Izyum, a family of four was killed, as well as a child. The humanitarian situation in the city is difficult. But, thanks to our soldiers and volunteers, we managed to bring a little humanitarian supplies to the city. The centers are being set up near the city for greater aid distribution capacity. A small group of people was evacuated to Slovyansk.
As a result of a total blockade of the occupied villages north of Kharkiv and Derhachi, people are forced to flee to Russian territories or accept humanitarian aid ostentatiously distributed by the orcs. Empty homes are inhabited by Russists who are looting them. It is impossible to deliver our humanitarian aid to those areas due to the lack of humanitarian corridors. It is also not possible to deliver aid to Balakliya and a number of other occupied towns in the northwest of the region. Today, the mayor of Velykoburluts’ki district, Viktor Tereshchenko, was released from captivity. He is safe and hospitalized. He has not yet made any public comments. Still, this is good news!
Overall, there were no active battles today. The sound of planes has not been heard over Kharkiv for a few days. Looks like nobody wants to fall without a parachute and be roasted by our AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine). Nice weather also makes it easy to locate Russian planes. Speaking of flying near Izyum: Ukrainian forces have repeatedly suppressed Russian attempts to fly over by shooting them down.
A decolonization of Kharkiv is starting. Yesterday, the Karazin University stripped Moscow State University Rector Victor Sadovnichy, a Krasnopavlovka native, of his title of honorary professor, while the Lozova District Council stripped him of his title of honorary citizen. Also, the Alexander Pushkin State Academic Russian Drama Theater asked to have the word “Russian” dropped from its name. It would be wonderful if they removed the “Pushkin” part too, in the name of decolonization.
Kharkiv intelligentsia and public figures are currently collecting signatures for a letter to Mayor Terekhov regarding decolonization of toponyms in Kharkiv. Oleh Synegubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, supports this petition. And if some people say this is not the right time to do this, we say, “Shame on you!”
An extremely powerful action took place today in Lviv, when 109 empty strollers were set up on Rynok Square representing the number of children that have died in Ukraine since February 24. (Unfortunately, we do not know the exact count from Mariupol and Izyum.) Currently, the situation has stabilized as an operational pause. It gives us and the Russists time to recuperate. We do not expect any significant changes in the situation though. This is neither good nor bad. It’s just how things are.
God’s working on our side, together with other security services, to identify informants and traitors. This makes me glad. It works well in Kharkiv, considering the amount of energy and human resources we have.
Kharkiv’s mood is quite optimistic. There is no despair, only anger and hatred for Russkies. Former fans of the “Russian World” are now itching to strangle the occupiers. Such are the city’s metamorphoses of the past three weeks.
Today’s Darwin Award goes again to the Muscovites, who once more placed their equipment at the airfield in Chornobayivka (Kherson), only for it to be destroyed by our artillery—for the fifth time!!! The commander of the 8th Army of Moscow, Andrei Mordichev, along with the command post of the Russists, became “cargo 200” (editor’s note: this is military jargon for corpses). Rest in concrete!
Let us continue to help our army, volunteers, doctors, rescuers, public utility workers, let us support each other and bring the day of victory closer, because Ukraine will prevail!
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Translated by Oksana Kastanda Lamborn
