By Serhiy Petrov
Today was a little depressing. Firstly, it rained almost all the time. Secondly, while the shelling varied in intensity from area to area, by the evening the russists intensified attacks on all the traditionally targeted areas.
Overall, the amount of muscovite shelling increased today. In general, after a little activity in the morning there was a pause, followed by renewed activity in the daytime. Then things calmed down—until the evening, over the course of which the muscovites gradually increased their activity. But Saltivka saw few such pauses today, and shelling in its various areas continued throughout. From Sunday night through Monday, another Russian Orthodox church was shelled and damaged, as was a perinatal center at a maternity hospital. The patients will be transferred to other hospitals in the city. In the evening, the shelling was done mostly by long-range artillery. Besides Saltivka, where the activity was hotter than in other areas, muscovites also shelled Pyatykhatky, Selyshche Zhukovskoho, Oleksiyivka, the Kharkiv Tractor Plant neighborhood, Novi Budynky, and the Gagarin Avenue area.
Twice during the day the muscovites hit areas that had not been shelled before. A howitzer shell that fell near a playground in the Gagarin Avenue area killed a man and a woman. Later, the area of Novi Budynky, a place where humanitarian aid is distributed, was shelled. As a result, one person was killed and six others were injured.
Today, local authorities recommended not to leave the shelters since the morning due to the chaotic shelling by the russists. It should be noted that they changed tactics. Previously the most intense shelling came in the morning, in the late afternoon, and in the evening. For several days now, I have been recording that the attacks, which bring many casualties, take place in the middle of the day. At the same time, I don’t see that this shelling is chaotic (yesterday’s shelling of the city center was intended to frighten). Today’s attack has a clear purpose. Using a Kharkiv database, our team of documentarians has classified the types of commonly targeted objects.
There was also shelling in the suburban zone, in the Dergachivska Hromada, particularly in Dergachi, as well as in the Chuhuiv direction.
In the afternoon, Mayor Terekhov said fountains in the city will be restarted one of these days. Thank God, someone then explained to him how dangerous this idea is for Kharkiv residents. People would go to the fountains, making them a great target for muscovite artillery. In the evening, Terekhov issued a statement saying the fountains will be turned on when the military situation allows. Can any of the adults explain to this “child” that his flirtation with the electorate is not just dangerous, but approaches being a war crime against Kharkiv?
Today, Terekhov finally spoke up about the Zhukov monument that was dismantled yesterday. He said that this issue should be revisited after the end of the war. This means exactly two things:
- He still lives in the old-mindset paradigm, where the population retains the cult of victory. (In fact, conversations with people prove that among those who remained in the city it has become much less popular.)
- It all depends on the position of the central government, which the city administration will adjust to. He will not initiate decolonization, which has been happening in many cities across Ukraine. And if he will initiate it, he will only do it after he gets a magical kick in the butt from the regional government, just as it happened with his position change on the subject of fountains.
Well, the danger of Terekhov himself has not disappeared, but we need to keep doing our jobs.
According to the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Kharkiv Region State Administration, as a result of the muscovite invasion of Ukraine, eight cultural heritage sites were damaged and destroyed (six in Kharkiv: Drobitsky Yar Memorial Complex, Ukrainian-Polish Memorial, Residential House “Slovo,” Biblioteka Korolenko; and two in the city of Izium: the remains of the Izium Fortress built in 1681 and the Memorial Complex in honor of the fallen liberators on Hora Kremyanetz). About 80 architectural monuments were also damaged and destroyed in the broader region. Meanwhile, there is no information about some areas of the region due to the occupation. In total, according to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the destruction of 200 cultural heritage sites has been recorded in Ukraine.
As for information on the broader region, very serious battles have begun in the Izium direction. Yes, the active fighting there has been going on for more than a week, but it seems that today was the bigger offensive that everyone expected and was preparing for. Fighting is taking place both in the Izum area and in the Barvinkove direction. Fighting is also going on in the Borivskyi direction. Of course, we will not have a clear picture in real time. It will be difficult and very complicated. We must believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in our boys, and not panic.
In the town of Boroviy, in the Batkivshchyna region, looting by the occupiers continues. A branch of the Pension Fund was robbed. The hromada is without communication, and there are problems with food.
At the same time, another muscovite plane was shot down near Balakliya. According to the General Staff, a number of settlements in the Izium district were liberated as a result of counterattacks, which a spokesman for the General Staff did not name.
Very heavy fighting is taking place in the Joint Forces Operation zone, from north to south. The Ukrainian military has retreated from Kremyana, there are street fights. The battles for Rubizhne and Popasna also continue. The shelling of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk continues. In the part of the Luhansk region that remains under the control of Ukrainian troops, there are about 20,000 people left who are reluctant to evacuate. Meanwhile, a car carrying people who decided to leave today was shot by the russists, resulting in four people being killed and one injured.
Heavy fighting is taking place on the Svitlodarska Duha, in the area of Avdiivka, Marinka, as well as in the south, at Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka. Muscovites were also trying to strike in the direction of Zaporizhzhia and used phosphorus munitions during the shelling of Huliaipole. The situation is difficult, but our guys will cope with it.
In Mariupol, the occupiers used super heavy bombs weighing 1 and 3 tons during the assault on Azovstal. Three-ton bombs are capable of shattering heavy duty reinforced concrete structures.
Many civilians are hiding in Azovstal’s shelters and the occupiers, knowing this, are deliberately destroying people using Tu-22M3 strategic bombers. Meanwhile, the russists detained more than 20,000 residents of the city and the surrounding areas, placing them in four filtration camps near Mariupol, from where they were forcibly deported to moscovia following an inspection.
Russist attempts to attack in the Kherson region were also beat back. So they resorted to attacks by aircraft and artillery attacks across Mykolaiv. Missile strikes hit Kramatorsk, a city in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as Lviv, where seven people were killed and 11 injured.
Meanwhile, terror against the local population continues in the Kherson region, where people are being intimidated. A humanitarian crisis is being created in order for everyone’s survival to depend on loyalty and cooperation with the occupying power. Those who are not loyal can simply starve to death. And yes, it’s worse than Nazism. However, not all rural areas can be easily put under the occupation regime, with “commanders,” sometimes being simply ignored. In cities, where such a regime has been established, it’s been the most difficult. Muscovites are really preparing for a “referendum” on the creation of the so-called Kherson People’s Republic.
A monument to Lenin was restored in the occupied Genichesk. It was dismantled and stored somewhere. And from those parts it was restored. We were convinced that neither the language, nor the monuments, nor the names of the streets were important. But for muscovites, all of this is very important, because these are the very symbols that enable establishing cultural and mental occupation. Any names of streets and monuments that preserve the marker of muscovite history and culture are important, because it is an indirect spread of the imperial narrative in the minds of the people.
In the morning of April 15 photos appeared of the missile cruiser “Moskva,” showing the entire captain’s bridge engulfed in fire, and the ship significantly tilted to one side. Seems that one of the “Neptunes” still hit straight to the engine room and the survival post. And after that there was a detonation of ammunition on the cruiser. However, the damage there was really serious and even in relatively calm seas it was impossible to save it. Regarding the number of dead on the ship, information is hidden, but according to secondary sources, at least 150 to 200 people died.
According to Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk, about one out of five residents was killed among those who remained in the city during the muscovite occupation. By the way, the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade, which took part in the atrocities in Bucha, was awarded the rank of “Guards.” Muscovite guards are looters, murderers, rapists, and war criminals in general. And we will write it down.
And in Irpin, police have already recorded about 270 deaths of civilians killed by russist occupiers. Also at this time, the police received reports of the disappearance of more than 1,100 people in the occupied territories, those that were liberated from the muscovites and those that continue to be under their control.
Freikorps leader Georgy Tarasenko, who died in battles for Mala Rohan and Vilkhivka, received the title of Hero of Ukraine, in recognition of personal courage and heroism. I think it is well deserved, including for the totality of his actions directed against the muscovites during all the years of his socio political activity. We will talk about political differences after our victory in the war.
Soldiers of the 93rd mechanized brigade found a phone on one of the captured muscovites, which, judging by all parameters, was not his. The occupier confiscated a smartphone from a girl who was leaving the dangerous area of Sumy region with her family at one of the checkpoints.
Our military returned the mobile phone to its owner, 10-year-old Ivanka, although her parents offered to leave it for military use. Honesty is one of the virtues of Ukrainians. We do not need someone else’s property, we are not looters, and on the contrary, we are ready to come to the aid of those who need it.
Today’s Darwin Award goes to the muscovite who recorded his own death in the vicinity of Izium on camera. Big bad boom and that’s it—no more muscovite.
Let us believe in and help our military and the Armed Forces! Let us support volunteers, medics, rescuers, and public utility workers, as well as each other. And we are approaching the day of our victory!
