KKharkiv’s mayor says Ukraine is at risk of becoming a “second Aleppo” unless U.S. politicians vote for new military aid to ensure Ukraine has the air defenses it needs to fend off long-range Russian attacks. I warned you that
Ihor Terekhov said Russia has switched tactics to terrorize the city’s 1.3 million residents by destroying the city’s electricity supply and firing into residential areas, causing residents to face unscheduled power outages for hours at a time. He said he was attacked.
The mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city says the $60 billion U.S. military aid plan currently stalled in Congress is “very important to us” and urges Western powers to refocus the two-year war. I encouraged him to guess.
“Kharkov needs its support to prevent it from becoming a second Aleppo,” Terekhov said, referring to the Syrian city that was heavily bombed by Russian and Syrian government forces at the height of the civil war a decade ago. he said.
On March 22, a Russian attack destroyed the power plant and all its substations on the eastern edge of the city. A week later, authorities confirmed that a second factory 30 miles southeast of the city had been destroyed in the same attack.
The city, about 30 miles from the Russian border, suffered power outages and subway services after another air raid this week. Residents say the city center typically has a few hours’ supply a day, but the situation is improving in the suburbs.
For their safety, children receive their education online or in underground schools. Water supplies continue to be provided, but Terekhov said there were concerns that the Russian military might switch to targeted gas supplies after last week’s attacks on storage facilities in the west.
Ukrainian leaders have begun asking Western countries to donate Patriot air defense systems, a request for help reinforced by U.S. and British military aid to Israel that neutralized an Iranian air attack over the weekend.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the allies’ defense actions “demonstrated how truly effective unity in the defense against terrorism can be when based on sufficient political will” before drawing comparisons with Ukraine. Stated.
The Iranian-designed Shahid drone used by Russia “makes the same sound as the drones used over the Middle East,” he said. “The impact of a ballistic missile is the same everywhere unless it is intercepted.”
The Ukrainian leader said: “If Ukraine had received the same full support from partner countries in intercepting drones and missiles, Europe’s skies would have received the same level of protection a long time ago.” concluded.
Just after midnight on April 6th, two rockets struck an unused shopping mall in Kharkiv on the city’s northern ring road, leaving a 4-meter-deep crater and military debris near a residential area. Seven people died.
Nina Mikhailivna, 72, who lives nearby, said the impact of the airstrike “lifted her bed into the air,” followed by a secondary explosion that lasted about 90 minutes and was the worst she had experienced during the war. He said it was.
Few residents have left Kharkiv since Russia stepped up its bombing campaign around the beginning of the year, and Kharkiv remains a bustling metropolis with bustling restaurants and cafes, and some businesses remain open despite the threat. It’s thriving.
Oleksiy Yevsikov, 39, and Viktoria Varennikova, 30, run the Avex clothing factory in a residential area and have installed $20,000 worth of solar panels on their roofs since the conflict began. There is. The addition will provide enough electricity to power the sewing machines of her 10 employees, who work in a Soviet-era building that is being completely renovated.
“We expected that attacks on energy infrastructure could cause power outages this winter,” Yevsikov said. “After considering solutions, we decided that diesel generators were not suitable, expensive and not very environmentally friendly, so we ordered solar panels last year.”
A newly installed power bank stores enough electricity to last two days even if the panels are unable to generate electricity, and a geothermal pump keeps the building warm, avoiding the need for gas. The factory is therefore self-sufficient, but this may be necessary as the owners expect the war to continue for at least two more years.
Their company makes women’s swimwear and fitness wear for Ukrainian brands, and the couple say sales have increased even though it was considered a luxury item during the war. Evsikov said the factory renovations are nearly complete and the company plans to roughly double its workforce.
Shortly after the war began, Varennikova found out she was pregnant. Her son Max is now one year old and she has stated her hope that the war may be over by the time he is ready to go to school. “I want him to go to regular school, not underground school or subway school or online school.”
However, not everyone is so optimistic. One of the company’s employees, Lyubov, plans to leave his home in Kharkiv and move to central Ukraine for at least a month to provide a calmer environment for his two daughters so that they can continue taking classes remotely. That’s what he said.
Russian bombings have become “more frequent, more frequent,” Lyubov said. The comprehensive attack on March 22 was “very frightening and loud” and “the attack could have taken place in any part of the city, day or night.”
Lyubov did not wish to be photographed or give his last name, perhaps reflecting a fear of not being identified as someone who has left the city. “We’ve had to get used to everything, but I wish we didn’t have to do that. We have a power bank, we have food storage, but we want to get this done quickly. We just want to live.”
