KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) – A 79-year-old woman made the sign of the cross and clutched a cane as she left her home in a quaint village in northeastern Ukraine.
Broken screens, shattered glass and scorched trees litter the garden of Olha Faychuk’s apartment in Lukyansi, north of Kharkiv. A cell phone with broken pieces was left on a nearby bench. It belonged to one of two people killed when a Russian bomb was dropped, leaving a black crater behind.
“God, please allow me to leave my home and bless my path forward,” Faychuk said, taking one last look around and slowly limping into an evacuation vehicle.
Unlike frontline villages further east that were exposed to fighting, attacks on border villages near the Russian region of Belgorod were rare until a wave of airstrikes began in late March.
Russia appears to have taken advantage of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv’s lack of air defense, to destroy the region’s energy infrastructure and terrorize its 1.3 million residents. Approximately 200,000 city residents remain without power, and 50% of the region’s population remains without power, officials said.
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Russia continues to fire deadly glide bombs to displace more residents as power companies struggle to meet demand before winter arrives in six months. Some officials and analysts have warned that this could be a concerted effort by Moscow to create conditions for a summer offensive to seize the city.
Kharkiv region governor Oleh Sinievov acknowledged the need to strengthen air defenses, saying: “We clearly understand that the enemy is actually exploiting this vulnerability every day.”
The Kharkov struggle reflects a broader problem. As Western allies drag their feet to get promised aid to Kiev, Russia is patiently escalating until – and hoping – Ukrainian resistance thaws.
The attack, which began on March 22, destroyed Kharkiv’s power generation and distribution capacity.
A missile launched from Belgorod takes 30 seconds to reach its target in Kharkov, which is only 30 kilometers away, which is about the time needed for air defense systems to react. In the final barrage, Russia swarmed these defenses and launched 22 missiles simultaneously to disorient them, Sinievov said.
Energy workers also took just 30 seconds to find shelter.
The pungent smell of smoke still hangs in the air at Kharkiv’s CHP-5 power plant, which generates electricity and heat. Factory manager Oleksandr Minkovych said the damaged generator and turbine would need to be replaced.
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The plant provided 50% of the region’s electricity and 35% of the city’s heating, Minkovic said. He said the country had been attacked six times since the Russian invasion began, but the recent barrage had destroyed “all possibilities” of generating electricity.
Spare parts for the Soviet-era factory can only be sourced from Russia, and a complete restoration is likely to take several years, he said. But Minkovych is hopeful that Ukraine’s Western partners will provide the latest technology to decentralize power in time for winter.
Without this, he said, he doesn’t know how to meet demand.
To keep the lights on, power is diverted from nearby areas to Kharkiv, but this process overloads the power grid and causes unplanned power outages. Companies have little idea when and for how long they can rely on the grid.
“We wake up every day and have no idea whether we will have electricity or not,” said Ole Kromov, owner of the popular Protagonist restaurant in Kharkiv.
Only 10 of the dozens of former residents remain in Faichuk’s apartment in Lukiansi.
“Why are they killing us?” 71-year-old Valentina Semenchenko said, crying as her friend was chased away.
Serhiy Novikov, a volunteer with I Am Saved, an NGO organizing the evacuation, said Russia’s increased use of glide bombs was making more areas near the Belgorod border uninhabitable.
Even if a bomb were to fall near a house, Novikov said, the house would be “uninhabitable because the shock wave would be so large that it would destroy everything in its path.”
Yulia Shudanevich made the difficult decision to leave her home in the nearby village of Lipsi after an April 10 airstrike killed two adults and a child. Previous missile and mortar attacks did not cause any casualties, but the introduction of aerial bombs changed the situation.
“Before they targeted one manufacturing building,” Shudanevich said. “Now it appears they are directly attacking civilians.”
When Shudanevich arrived, there was no electricity at the Kharkiv shelter, so she filled out paperwork by light from a battery-powered lamp. Director Ihor Kasinksi said the facility was experiencing power outages and water outages.
Before the war, 2,000 people lived in the village of Rubizhne, 14 kilometers from the Russian border. Currently, only 60 people remain, including Olha Bezborodova. But she doesn’t know how long she will stay.
“It’s really difficult. It would have been easier if there was light,” Bezborodova said, cradling her toddler. She said various organizations have helped her repair her home, but “they (Russians) are not done yet. They are bombing all the time.”
Ukrainian officials are divided over the significance of the recent Kharkov attack.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said it is no secret that Russia wants to occupy the region, but Ukrainian military intelligence says rumors of a future attack are a “psychological operation” to incite panic. claims. Analysts point to the intensity of recent attacks and argue that the possibility of a large-scale attack cannot be ruled out.
The Ukrainians seized the opportunity and built fortifications on the outskirts of the city.
Mr. Oleksandr, an engineer with a company involved in the work, said crews were digging anti-tank trenches, setting up dragon teeth and building trench networks to keep Russian troops at bay. . For his security reasons, he was not allowed to share his last name or his company’s last name.
He has a deadline of early May to complete the job. “I’ll be there on time,” he said.
Meanwhile, cafes and restaurants in Kharkiv are still crowded, and locals are accustomed to conversing over the roar of generators. Protagonist gives you the option to order from an alternate menu when the power is off.
“The people who are staying here and continuing to do business and trying to do something are not tragic figures with nowhere to go,” Kromov said. “They’re a special kind of pervert enthusiast who’s still interested in trying to figure it out and building something.”
At a nearby bakery, employees manually record sales to ration electricity to keep food cold.
“We are trying to cope,” said Oleksandra Silkina, 34.
“We are used to these attacks because we have been constantly attacked since 2022,” she added. “We’re not leaving this city. It’s our city.”
