By Serhiy Petrov
The day was very quiet. There was very little shelling, mostly on the northern outskirts of the city. Unfortunately, the shelling still had victims. The Ukrainian military liberated several settlements north of Kharkiv.
The overall amount of shelling was almost the lowest of all time—perhaps even lower than on Velykden (Easter) on April 24, when it was also quiet. In the northern outskirts, the ruscists fired on Pivnichna Saltivka, Pyatykhatky, and Oleksiyivka; they also fired on Sokilnyky, as well as the easterm outskirts of Kulynychi and Saltivka. One person was killed, and two were wounded in the city during the day.
But there was shelling of the northern suburbs of Kharkiv: the Derhachi Hromada (luckily no injuries there), the village of Udy, of the Zolochiv Hromada (one person was wounded), and Chuhuiv, where the shelling caused a large fire, but no victims.
Finally, there is a lot of good news. On Thursday, both the village of Kutuzivka an the nearby village of Momotove were liberated. (That was a small clarification.)
Then, as a result of an operation by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, with active participation by the special unit Kraken, the village of Ruska Lozova, in the Derhachi Hromada, was liberated. Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of Ukrainian Ground Forces and Hero of Ukraine, and the commander of the defense of Kyiv, led the operation. The village of Lisne was liberated as well (it had been in a gray zone). The territory of the long-suffering Feldman Ecopark (zoo) has also moved from being in a gray zone to being under the control of government forces. Animal evacuation is underway (the Himalayan bear was evacuated today).
A Ukrainian flag was hoisted over the head office in Ruska Lozova, and more than 600 locals, who had been under occupation for more than two months, were evacuated from Ruska Lozova and Lisny by volunteers and the military. All this time they were hiding in basements, without electricity. The muscovites looted en masse, taking even clothes. Some of the soldiers of the “Second Army of the World,” according to some locals, were looking for shoes, because they came to fight in crappy sneakers.
The evacuation was carried out in order to protect people from mass shelling of the territories the ruscists lost. This is something they recently resorted to doing in the vicinity of Kharkiv. IThe village of Lisne, particularly, was subjected to heavy shelling.
As I said, Ruska Lozova is a strategic point on the way to Belhorod. From this exact point the occupiers shelled Kharkiv, Selyshche Zhukovskoho, Pyatykhatky, the Kharkiv city center, and sometimes other districts of the city. This also gives more options to our military than just pushing toward the border in the area of Goptivka. Finally, just look at the map: there is Ruska Lozova and there is Bobrivka, both of which we control.
As far as the city is concerned, this liberation will hopefully be a relief for the northern outskirts, although it will not stop the shelling. In order to stop it, you need to push further north, toward the border. It is also too early to talk about a mass return of Kharkiv residents. Yes, these are the first real successes, but the normalization of the security situation in Kharkiv is still very far.
Meanwhile, mayor Terekhov used the lull in intense shelling as a chance to push his campaign once again, insisting that Kharkiv residents should make their own decision on the question of the Zhukov monument through opinion polls.
According to a poll in the city’s social networks, most are in favor of forgetting about this issue, because the bust of Zhukov is already in the dump, so why keep dragging this mummy. The polls are quite representative. No more than 12-15% of their participants support the restoration.
After all this, the Kharkivites had a lot of questions for city authorities regarding Terekhov’s “vatnoy” (translator: slang for pro-Russian) politics. There is a possibility that the military may eventually pay him a visit to explain that he should be focusing on being useful instead of loud imitations of action.
And there are lots of questions:
- Why didn’t local authorities evacuate the population of the shelled areas after the fuel situation in Kharkiv returned to normal? Why are volunteers the only ones doing this? Where is the city government?
- Why weren’t public utility workers provided with bulletproof vests, at least lower-grade ones? Those at least protect from small fragments. Let me remind you that one of the city workers has already been wounded as a result of the shelling of Gorky Park.
- What measures did the city take to equip the bomb shelters? Why weren’t they equipped even with simple benches and tables? Two months have gone by and nothing has been done. Equipping the shelters was entirely up to the people using them, without any help from the city government, which should be responsible for this.
- And where are the city council representatives from the successful Kernes, I mean from Kernes’s “Successful Kharkiv” bloc? Where are they? Most of the European Solidarity and the Svitlychna Bloc representatives to the city council are in Kharkiv: some are in the Armed Forces while the others are volunteering madly or helping Ukraine’s victory in other ways. Where are your representatives? Why did they flee the city like rats? Where are the representatives from Saltivka, Selyshche Zhukovskoho, Pyatykhatky, and the Kharkiv Tractor Plant neighborhood—the districts most affected by the muscovite shelling.
Maybe it’s time to finally take up your direct responsibilities and stop talking about the bloody executioner and butcher Zhukov! Hello! Mr. Terekhov!
These are only a few questions that arise for me, as well as for my friends and colleagues (some relatively loyal to Terekhov, given Kharkiv’s political “beau monde”).
Questions and complaints have arisen from Kharkovites with whom I and our team of documentarians communicate daily. Do you know how many complaints there are about the inactivity of the city authorities? Poor people are constantly asking us for help solving their life problems, because all they are getting from the authorities is chatter like, “We will rebuild everything after the war.”
Elsewhere in the region the situation is difficult. The muscovites are attacking in the Slovyansk and Barvinkove directions, but their activity declined slightly today. Particularly due to the successful defensive actions of our Armed Forces, which caused significant ruscist losses.
A “badaboom” happened in the temporarily occupied village of Pershotravnevyi, of the Borivka Hromada, leading to muscovite losses. The village is now closed for entry or exit. In the village of Borova, the ruscists ransacked the palace of culture and turned a daycare center into a toilet.
Heavy fighting continues in the Joint Forces Operation zone in the Lyman area for Rubizhne and Popasna, near Sievierodonetsk, Avdiivka, Maryinka and Velyka Novosilka. In the Huliaipole area, the ruscist attacks have stalled due to damage to the bridge in Yakymivka. The situation in Mariupol is extremely difficult, but our military is conducting raids and defeating the occupiers.
Pushlin, gauleiter of ORDLO (temporarily occupied areas of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions), arrived in Mariupol accompanied by journalists, giving away handouts, and promising that “life will get better.” He took the last remaining ventilators in one of Mariupol’s hospitals and left.
To secure Bakhmut, our troops blew up the railway bridge across Siverskyi Donets between Lyman and Raihorodok.
In occupied Kyselivka, in the Kherson region, a dispute arose between the Buryats and the Kadyrovites over the fact that the Kadyrovites were fighting on the second and third lines, while the Buryats were sent to the front line. Buryats also complained that the Kadyrovites were only engaged in looting and left nothing to the Buryats. The dispute escalated into a shootout. According to Arestovich, the “fighting Buryats” won. I wonder if next time it would be possible for both sides to win and leave no survivors.
Radio Svoboda journalist Vira Girych was killed in a rocket attack on a residential building in Kyiv on Thursday.
In occupied Donetsk (ORDLO) there was a loud bang and a fire broke out at an oil depot. I wonder what it was? Did someone smoke a cigarette?
The Belhorod region is restless. In the evening there were again some explosions there, followed by sounds of artillery. They also prevent Kharkiv residents from sleeping. (You guys should get used to this crossborder noise.) There were explosions near the village of Krupets in the Kursk region, although the muscovites have been striking the border villages of Chernihiv and Sumy regions for several days.
In Kurhan, in moscovia, there was an explosion at a pharmaceutical plant, one of the largest producers of antibiotics in the country.
Today’s Darwin Award goes to the ruscist-Kadyrov TikTok warrior from Mariupol, who managed to report that they had done an A+ job and had only a few wounded fighters before receiving a response from the Azov battalion. He never got the chance to report that his unit took at least one loss. He only fell down, his smartphone turning red.
Let us believe in our military and the strength of our Armed Forces! And let us get closer to our victory!
