By Serhiy Petrov
The attack on the city has been going on for 40 days. Today was louder than yesterday. The main targets were the suburbs of Kharkiv.
The intensity of the shelling has varied, starting and stopping since morning. In the afternoon everything calmed down, but we observed increased shelling in the evening. Saltivka, Obriy, Rohan, the Kharkiv Tractor Plant neighborhood, Oleksiyivka, and Pyatykhatky were shelled. Russists also hit the Kulinichi district, where hospitals, kindergartens, and residential buildings came under fire. While dismantling the debris, three dead bodies and one wounded person were pulled out from under the rubble.
The suburbs were seriously bombarded today. In Derhachi, shelling damaged and destroyed residential buildings and an electrical substation, leaving a significant part of the city without electricity. Territory of the Russian Orthodox Church in Derhachi was hit—fortunately, there was minimal damage, but the windows were destroyed. War with their own (conditionally) is a tradition for russists. The stadium in the city was hit once again. Muscovites also fired upon the village of Zolochiv where the editorial office of the local newspaper was damaged. They fired upon one of Chuhuiv’s districts, destroying single-family houses and damaging high-rise buildings. Two people died.
The variety and availability of goods in stores is gradually increasing. In some chains, depending on the store, variety is limited; in some, the goods remain available throughout the chain. A silver lining: the checkout queues are short. Let me remind you that at the beginning of the war the queues in the shops stretched for an hour, two, or two and a half hours, depending on the area. The other side of the lack of queues is that more than 50% of the population has left the city. The queues for humanitarian aid are a whole other story. The wait there is quite long.
The selection of products in the local retail chains changes constantly, because old supply chains are broken. However, this is less of a problem in national chains. Gradually, other shops are opening as well, e.g. clothing, beauty salons, cafes, and coffee shops. Not many of these are open around the city, and not everyone knows which ones are, so people tend to flock to the few known establishments in the center. Most people rarely go outside, except for important matters, like getting food. Only dog owners go outside on a regular basis.
As for the broader region, fighting continues on the outskirts of Izyum. The center of the city is controlled by muscovites, who have set up a field hospital in one of the city’s schools. I have already written many times that russists always use social infrastructure as their field bases as a strategy—Ukraine is reluctant to destroy its own infrastructure. They’re also questioning residents who remain in the city. We have already seen what this leads to: the disappearance of activists and pro-Ukrainian people, rape, torture, and all other “peacekeeping measures” of “ruSSkiy mir” (“ruSSian world”). In addition, residents of Izyum are being forcibly deported to muscovy.
Today Barvinkove was fired upon again. There is damage to residential buildings and agricultural machinery. City officials are calling for evacuation. The need to evacuate was announced in the village of Borova (east of Kharkiv region) as well as in Lozova. At the same time, the city authorities urge doctors to stay to help Lozova residents.
Muscovites are bringing equipment and armed forces to Izyum, but they are not attacking yet. Today, the General Staff announced a high probability of a russist attack, with renewed vigor, on Kharkiv. Honestly, I don’t know what the russists’ plan is. However, our soldiers cannot waste time, so they prepare for all possibilities. There have been no active attempts to attack Kharkiv for a long time, only shelling. In addition, during this time, Ukraine has forced the russists out of some parts of the city. But with the muscovites, anything is possible. I do not rule out that the shelling of the city will intensify significantly, so we must be as careful as possible. If you live in Kharkiv near sites that our team of documentarians has classified as targets for the muscovites, be cautious.
Fighting for Rubizhne continues. Rubizhne as well as Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are being shelled. There are battles for Popasna. It is expected that the muscovite offensive will begin in the coming days in these front sectors.
The territory of the Sumy region was liberated from the muscovites, and our troops reached the state border of Ukraine. The russists are slowly leaving Chernihiv, our military is forcing them to move more actively towards the BSSR (“Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic”). Another battle, the Battle of Sumy, culminated in victory for the Ukrainian troops.
This morning, a public transportation stop and children’s hospital in Mykolayiv were brutally fired upon with cluster shells, killing ten people, including one child, and injuring 46. The muscovites are aiming at crowds and hospitals.
Last night, our military hit an airborne command center, IL-22, over the Sea of Azov, forcing an emergency landing in Rostov. In the Black Sea, the newest muscovite frigate, Admiral Essen, which has fired on Syria and Ukraine, was damaged.
The scale of the Bucha massacre startled the world and many Ukrainians. According to information from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the situation in Borodyanka and its environs is even more horrifying than in Bucha. In contrast, the (Russian) state news outlet RIA Novosti published an article on how to “denazify” Ukraine; similar articles by various authors were published in other muscovite sources. These publications come across as statements of admission of guilt, their content boiling down to calls for physical elimination of Ukraine and genocide of Ukrainians.
The russists want to eliminate us all, simply wipe us out—kill all those who oppose the war or activists who support any pro-Ukrainian movements. The policy they seem to be advocating calls for all non-activist citizens to be detained in concentration camps, forcibly “denazified,” and sent to the new GULAG to help rebuild moscovia. One way russists want to assimilate all the citizens who are left alive is by banning the names ”Ukraine ” or “Ukrainians,” because, according to them, there is only one nation, period! Regarding western Ukraine, the russist plan is for it to become a separate state entity, but one that is demilitarized and neutral, with a ban on formal signage in Ukrainian or of a Ukrainian nature.
The only conclusion is that the end goal of the muscovites is to eliminate Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation. From the very beginning, their planned invasion of Ukraine included the possibility of genocide with the abolition of Ukraine’s independence as a sovereign nation.
The fighting continues in the industrial zone of Mariupol. But the russists are already forming an occupied administration of the city. They have found a Gauleiter among the deputies of the city council: Konstantin Ivashchenko, a member of the collaborating “opezdezhe” party (translator’s note: Opposition Platform—For Life). To “legitimize” the process, he was elected by the City Council representatives of “opezdezhe,” as well as government representatives and representatives of other fractions who were forcibly brought to the meeting. Another member of “opezezhe” was elected as secretary of this council: (Yevhen) Kharmyshev. The meeting of collaborators “ratified” the 2014 referendum.
Today’s Darwin Award goes to the muscovite citizen who was detained at one of the checkpoints while trying to leave Kharkiv with drugs in his possession. But that’s not all. He tried to leave Kharkiv with forged Ukrainian documents. In short, this is a total royal flush!
Let us help our army and volunteers, doctors, public utility workers, and rescuers. Let us support each other. Let us keep the system going, and everything will be, Ukraine!
