Kharkiv. Chronicles of the Attack on the City. Day 27 (22.03.2022)

By Serhiy Petrov

Today was overall quieter than yesterday, although not all neighborhoods felt this silence. Still, there weren’t too many raids. After the evening shelling, the Muscovites got quite until the morning, when around 6 or 7 am, shelling started again.

They used to start around 4 or 5 am, but ammunition appears to be running low. The morning and the first half of the day were fairly active, although to a lesser extent than in the previous two days. It got a bit quieter in the afternoon, and the evening turned out to be less intense as well. The areas shelled the most were Pivnichna Saltivka (it was shelled the most in the evening and a little bit during the night) and the nearby neighborhoods, including Velyka Danylivka, Obriy (Horyzont), Rohan’, the Kharkiv Tractor Plant neighborhood, and Dergachi. 

Downtown Kharkiv in our times. Photo by Nataliya Zubar.

The shelling destroys buildings, where fires then break out—sometimes big fires. Supermarkets are being ruined. Overall, buying food in shelled areas has become a quest and a problem. People are being pushed out of their neighborhoods, but many remain, living bravely under the fire. The Russists’ attempts to get to Kharkiv fail far away from the city, which is delightful. They lose equipment and manpower, but switch to indiscriminate shelling of the city from afar. 

Working under fire in Northern Saltivka, rescuers gathered everything that was left of the Nazi concentration camp prisoner Borys Romanchenko. Fire destroyed his apartment, and his body was burned to the bones. The cruelty of the Muscovites is unreal, it’s worse than the Nazis’. It’s hard to comprehend.

But the most important events of the day took place elsewhere in the region. First, the Muscovites covered Lozova with rockets, hitting a peaceful residential neighborhood. According to the Lozova City Council, one person died and 10 were wounded, two of them heavily. Hitting residential neighborhoods as if they’re military targets is the fascists’ signature move. 

Second, the fighting in Izyum continues. There, attempts to take the city ended with another round of losses for the pigs. There, the 254th motor rifle regiment of the 144th motor rifle division took heavy losses. The regiment’s commander is dead. Our boys have been fucking them up nicely! The regiment has been taken to Moscow Land for “restoration of combat capability.”

Russians appoint Gauleiters in occupied territories of the Kharkiv region. They aren’t always local. For example, they couldn’t find anyone in Vovchansk other than Dmytro Chygrynov, a criminal who for a period of time was on the most wanted list. Today the Muscovites gave out humanitarian aid in the city, played the Russian national anthem, and raised the Muscovite flag downtown. Their flags are also hanging at the City Hall and the police building. They tried to change the town sign at the entrance to the city to the Russist spelling of Vovchansk, but the locals changed it back. 

Their appointee to head the administration of Kozacha Lopan was Vitaliy Hanchev, who until 2014 served as deputy of the head of police in the Derhachiv district, but then fucked off to Luhansk. Although, next to Hanchev in a propaganda video appeared Lyudmyla Vakulenko, head of the Derhachiv municipality in the Kozacha Lopan area.

The Russists on occupied territories are also committing inhuman cruelty against civilians. For example, a tank shot up a car with a family inside who were waving a white flag. The parents and their nine-year-old daughter died. Their 17-year-old son was wounded. Overall, 117 children have been killed, and this number is growing every day. But we don’t know how many children have been killed in Mariupol and its surroundings, as well as in Izyum. The Muscovites came to kill us—all of us, without discrimination. This is a proven fact.

This morning, a rocket was shot down in the Nova Vodolaga area, which was most likely headed for Kharkiv. Good air defense is what Kharkiv needs!

The fighting is heating up near Rubizhne and Severodonetsk, which are under constant shelling by the Russists. In Severodonetsk they hit people lined up outside of a store. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. 

God’s work continues. Today, Dmytro Tykhonenkov, attorney for the leaders of Antimaidan, who blew up a peaceful march near the Palace of Sports in 2015, and for other scum, was arrested for collaborating with Russists, according to media reports. He is also a delegate to the Kharkiv City Council from “opezdezhe” (translator’s note: this is a pejorative referring to the Opposition Platform—for Life party). Now let him be tried for treason. It’s important that they don’t let him go.

Meanwhile, member of the political council Servant of the People [Sluha Narodu], a Kharkiv curator, and former tax collector Vadym Slyusarev left for Russia on February 18, with the goal of “permanent residence,” and remains there. I’m curious, is the Kharkiv region about to get another Gauleiter???

Black smoke is rising above the Russist embassy in Warsaw—they’re burning documents and preparing for an evacuation at the first directive. They were burning documents in Kyiv, too, one week before the attack. Looks like Khuylo (translator’s note: this is a Russian pejorative referring to Putin) has decided to threaten Poland with an attack for its support of Ukraine and its proposition to bring in a peacekeeping force. I’m curious, is this just empty sable rattling, or is he really prepared to fight on multiple fronts simultaneously??

Kherson residents again came out to protest today. The Muscovites tried to disperse them with tear gas, but as soon as the gas dissipated they were back together protesting. Brave people, whom Ukraine admires and prides itself on!

It feels good that the math department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is opening a program for Ukrainian scholars in memory of the Kharkiv mathematician, teacher, and volunteer Yulia Zdanovska. We are grateful for the initiative and a worthy way to honor her memory!

Today’s Darwin Award goes to the unnamed Russist from Sevastopol who shot a video of rockets being fired at Ukraine from a warship. Nice video for The Hague.

We thank our military for the rebuff to the Muscovites. Let’s help them, the volunteers, the medics, the rescuers, and the public utility workers. Let’s support each other, because many are struggling psychologically. We know that everything will definitely be, Ukraine!

How to support us?

donate You can help us by sending money to PayPal of our Chair nataliyazubar@maidanua.org or to the account of our Organization Maidan Monitoring Information Center https://maidan.org.ua/en/supportmmic/.
About Сергій Петров 248 Articles
історик, аналітик Інформаційного Центру "Майдан Моніторинг" (сайт "Майдан"), громадський активіст, редактор української Вікіпедії