By Serhiy Petrov
Another difficult day for the city of Kharkiv and its residents. While there is less shelling in the city, the attacks have become more insidious and much more unexpected. Today there are many dead and wounded, again. But there is good news as well. The monument to Zhukov, the bloody Marshal of the USSR, has finally been dismantled. There is also good news from the front around Kharkiv.
Today was Verbova Nedilya (translator’s note: Willow Sunday) for Christians of the Eastern Rite and Easter for Christians of the Western Rite. Congratulations to all on these holidays. However, I would like to note that after hearing the Pope’s “myzamir” (translator’s note: “we stand for peace”) position, my sympathy for the Roman Catholic Church cooled down. And I was just beginning to believe in the church more in the wake of some of its recent reforms. I am glad that I consider myself an adherent to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, because this is the Ukrainian church, period!
So, as I said, the volume of shelling today was really low, in some cases even lower than yesterday. Of course, it varies from area to area. After a spike in muscovite activity in the morning there was a slight decline, followed by some mild activity during the day, after which everything calmed down until the evening, when there was another surge in russist shelling in the city. Geography of the shelling was very wide, including different districts of Saltivka, Selyshche Zhukovskoho, Pyatykhatky, Oleksiyivka, the Kharkiv Tractor Plant neighborhood, the central part of the city, Nemyshlya, and Novi Budynky.
Today, the muscovites heavily shelled the city center using multiple-rocket launcher systems. The shelling came in several waves. They hit aimlessly, covering as large an area as possible, so the spread of damage is very broad. There are many damaged and partially destroyed houses, kindergarten, school, medical facilities. The shelling caused many fires. Muscovites used cluster munitions. I was in the area when the shelling occured, but fortunately not out on the street, so I’m fine.
I am sure that today’s shelling of the Kharkiv center is a revenge for the fact that Kraken (translator’s note: special division of Azov Battalion) soldiers dismantled a monument to the bloody butcher Zhukov, whom Ukrainians remember for using the Soviet army to cross the Dnipro and capture Kyiv in the autumn of 1943 using enlisted youth from the “liberated territories,” who were given neither uniforms nor weapons. These were the “black jackets,” who fought wearing their civilian clothes. It was he who gave orders for operations or assaults when Soviet troops literally overwhelmed the Nazis with corpses. As a result, some German machine gunners went cuckoo.
The fight against the Zhukov monument has been going on since the fall of 2015 and neither the City Council nor the head of the regional state administration were up for dismantling it. The monument was removed from the pedestal several times, but (former Kharkov mayor Hennadiy) Kernes ordered it to be restored. Dozens of protests were organized, hundreds of letters were sent to various authorities to argue for the need to implement the law on decommunization. In May 2019, the ordeal about the renaming Grigorenko Avenue back to Marshal Zhukov began. Four times the City Council reversed the name in violation of the law, and four times the courts revoked it. There are still three ongoing lawsuits in various appeal stages. For the past two years, the Zhukov monument has been guarded by police, so that activists do not come and take him away. But today the military arrived and took the monument to the dump. Interestingly, after the dismantling, neither the (Kharkiv) mayor (Ihor) Terekhov nor any city official commented on the event. One exception was the head of the Nemyshlyansky district administration who said that “everything happened very quickly.” The lack of comments from the city authorities about the bloody insect indicates that they were simply confronted with the fact of the removal. In general, this was necessary! There’s martial law in Ukraine!
After this news, I had a feeling that the muscovites would take revenge, because Zhukov is their symbol. The monument to Zhukov is a symbol of the cultural, historical, and mental occupation of the city by the muscovite narrative. This is as allegorical as the cruiser “Moskva.” Unfortunately, my intuition didn’t mail me: the russists took revenge on Kharkiv for that.
It turns out that the Investigative Committee of moscovia has opened a criminal case for “humiliating the memory of the defenders of the muscovite homeland, committed by a group of conspirators.”
The russists want to establish a list of people who took part in the dismantling of the monument. Yes, the muscovites are once again extending their jurisdiction to Ukraine, as if it were some kind of Belarusian Federal District, or Belarussian Soviet Socialist Republic . On the other hand, the blow to their symbol is a blow to the heart, a blow to the stomach, the base of the braces that hold the society together. Hence the reaction: both a criminal “case” and an attack. In short. Investigative Committee of moscovia, go fuck yourself!
Today’s heroes are the firefighters and the medics. The firefighters today happen to be celebrating their profession: it’s Fire Brigade Day or Firefighter’s Day. I thank the firefighters for making every effort to extinguish the fires as soon as possible after each shelling of the muscovites, working under the shelling, no matter what. And medics and their professional actions today saved several lives during the second wave of shelling of the center. A deep bow for your devotion!
There was also shelling in the suburbs. Derhachi, the village of Slatine, and villages of the Derhachi Hromada, were shelled. There were also hits in Chuhuiv direction.
Now the good news from the front. First, there are now battles for the village of Kutuzivka in the Vilhuvatska Hromada. Part of the village was liberated from the occupiers. The village was for a long time one of the muscovite bases. It is located on the road to Staryi Saltiv. The Shestakove village is on that road, another russist base from where they fire on the southeastern outskirts of the city. Also, according to the head of the Kharkiv Region State Administration, Oleg Synegubov, the Ukrainian military has advanced east of Mala Rohan. Indeed, our military is gradually liberating the areas around Kharkiv and reducing the opportunities for muscovites to shell Kharkiv, leaving them with only one option: the long-range multiple-rocket launcher systems.
It should be noted that Kharkiv residents relaxed a bit after a long period without heavy shelling, which lasted until the beginning of the second decade of April, and due to the onset of warm weather and spring. However, now is the time when being on the street can be dangerous. It is better to be in a shelter, at home. Those who are especially anxious and tired should leave the city. Both regional and city authorities have been calling for limited presence on the streets in recent days.
According to mayor Terekhov, the population is being evacuated from the shelled areas. However, it is being carried out by volunteers who have been doing it while under fire for a long time. This is definitely not an effort by the city authorities, as the mayor of Kharkiv claims.
As for the broader region, the situation is also different. The intensity of fighting in various directions in the region is growing, and shelling of various communities continues. Fighting continues in the Izyum area and in the Barvinkove direction. The occupiers cannot move forward because of the actions of our military. Fighting continues in the area of Kreminna, Luhansk region; and the village of Borova, the center of the Borivska Hromada, Kharkiv region. The Ukrainian military is trying to counterattack in the Borova area. Also today in the Kharkiv region, the 93rd mechanized brigade shot down a russist helicopter, another analogue of the Ka-52 “Alligator,” with two shots from the Soviet-era Igla MANPADS. All the state-of-the-art protection systems did not help her. In addition, the muscovites launched a missile strike on Lozova. Fortunately, there are no victims.
In Izyum, where about 12,000 people still remain, the occupiers have begun enlisting the male population to replenish their forces to throw them into a meat grinder against Ukrainian troops. Forcibly mobilizing the civilian population is an attempt to use it for cover in the face of constant unsuccessful attacks and constitutes yet another war crime.
The shelling of the Zolochiv Hromada, which is on the border with moscovia, continues. And today the russists fired upon the villages of Ivashky (fortunately, without casualties), as well as the village of Dovzhyk, where one person died. There are damaged houses in both villages.
Our troops have also had successes in the region, on the so-called Malinovsky bridgehead on the left bank of Siversky Donets. Our glorious Armed Forces are expanding this bridgehead. The villages of Bazaliyivka and Lebyazhe, of the Chkalovsk Hromada, have been liberated (the town of Chkalovsk is temporarily occupied by muscovites).
The battles for Rubizhne and Popasna continue. These cities are constantly shelled together with Severodonetsk. Authorities in the Luhansk Region are urging people to evacuate while it is still possible, but today the evacuation bus left almost empty. Fighting continues in the central part of the Joint Forces Operation in the area of Avdiivka and Marinka, as well as in the southern part, in the area of Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk region.
In Kherson, according to intelligence, a provocation is being prepared. Muscovites plan to fire “Grads” upon the city and blame the Armed Forces (of Ukraine). For the “referendum,” the occupiers will use personal data collected from local residents during the distribution of humanitarian aid. Also after the “referendum” in the Kherson region, the russists plan to announce the mobilization of the male population to throw them in battle as cannon fodder against the Ukrainian military, creating a picture of a “civil war” for the muscovites.
In the Trostyanets Sumy region, five children and a man who went for a walk in the woods with a dog have been blown up due to mines and streamers left behind by the muscovites after the retreat. Walking unchecked roads is simply dangerous in the territories where hostilities took place and in areas adjacent to them, and it will be for the next 10-15 years! Once again, I am repeating what I wrote so many times.
Today’s Darwin Award goes to the employees of the Donetsk Opera, the Philharmonic, and the Circus, who were mobilized and thrown into a meat grinder. Some of them have already kicked the bucket heroically. Providing entertainment to the local occupier administration did not help them—they became dispensable. This is what should happen with every traitor of Ukraine!
Let us help the Armed Forces, the National Security Service and Territorial Defense, as well as doctors, volunteers, rescuers, and public utility workers. Let us support each other. We believe in Ukraine!
