Ukraine, Russia War: Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city that survived the Russian occupation but did not surrender

In the early days of the attack, Kharkiv pushed back a Russian contingent in eastern Ukraine. Since then, the city has been under Russian bombing overnight, with dozens of civilians killed and hundreds injured.

The BBC's Quentin Somerville and cameraman Darren Kone have spent a week here with the Ukrainian army.

The first thing that is lost in war is time. Ask a young soldier on the front when the attack took place or ask an old woman in a hospital when their house was bombed. 24 hours or 48 ... They will say that day and night have become one.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, is unpredictable. It is close to the Russian border and the Russian bombing does not stop there. The last two weeks now seem like an unending period while the memory of peace is like yesterday.

In the snow-covered city, 21-year-old Lieutenant Eugene Gromadsky stands guard. Trenches have been dug nearby. "Russian bombs are being fired from a distance of 900 meters from here.

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The bombing here is like the movement of the hands of a clock. Every once in a while a voice is heard saying, "Incoming (ie coming) or Outgoing (ie going)."

We met Eugene just this afternoon, but I know that his father, Oleg, was killed defending the city last week.

Eugene is the seventh in a family to serve in the military. He plans to join the army in his eighth generation in an independent Ukraine.

Describing the fighting so far, he said, "Terrorist groups tell the enemy our position. Our tanks fight directly. We hit them with mortars and then the tanks bombed our location. "
Use of white flags
We are moving from one front to the other in the front lines. In his armored vehicle, Eugene hangs a Russian military cap as a reward. "If we retaliate with anti-tank missiles, then we have conventional small arms," ​​he said. They come down and run. They always have a lot of people. "

Inside the truck are air fresheners for the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. The skulls on it shake.

"We sometimes use white flags," says Lt. Yukin from the front seat. When we wave it, they come closer to us. When we get close, we make them prisoners of war and then they try to fire on our soldiers. "

Eugene's position was attacked on Monday (or maybe Eugene doesn't remember exactly before). "Don't worry, we're ready," he said, referring to the American-made Lockheed Martin anti-tank missiles.

Nearby are British state-of-the-art light anti-tank missiles. The company that makes them claims on Saab's website that it destroys state-of-the-art tanks.

It's very cold here and two dogs are playing near Lieutenant Eugene's feet. Tugan is wearing Puma company joggers. "You have to run fast here," he says.
Ukraine is still on the defensive in this war. His government is being criticized for being unprepared and forcing it to move to the front lines.

Civilian defense forces are being added to the general army. In one corner of the city, I saw new soldiers arriving on buses.

One of them asks, "Where is my body armor?" Another officer shouts, "I'll see you later."

Some lieutenants will join Eugene's unit, including a doctor named Rapper. The rapper says, "You must have heard the name of Graeme Rapper (Angel of Death)!" The same doctor is also responsible for the defense of this village. Many homes here have been destroyed by Russian shelling.

I asked the rapper how the Russians were fighting. "The Russians fight like stupid animals," he says. They fight like in 1941. They can't turn fast. Only their troops come forward. They have a lot of people, a lot of tanks, a lot of vehicles but we are fighting for our land and we are saving our families. It doesn't matter how they move. We are fighting like lions and they will not win.

There is a coffee shop behind this field kitchen. The army cook is wearing a hat. He gives me a cup of hot borscht and says, 'Eat it with sour cream!' I have cakes and biscuits made by a local factory.

I was sitting with 30-year-old battalion commander Sergei. "We see the enemy, we kill the enemy," he says. There is no communication. 'They ask me where I am from. When I told them, they started asking if it was true that British soldiers did not come as volunteers. At the end of the shower, he asks which planes you guys have given us.But Russia is advancing east and south of Ukraine. The Russian military is probably facing more resistance than expected, but the city is still in turmoil.

The spirit of the front line is in place, but every soldier here realizes that ground efforts will not be enough and they need air defense and no-fly zone.

I got into an armored vehicle. The vehicle was used two weeks ago to collect money from the city's banks. Now it has been put to war. We were on our way to town and arrived at a Soviet-era building.

Here we met Eugene, a Viking man. He has an orange beard and lots of tattoos on his body. 36-year-old Eugene says, "If Kharkiv is conquered, then the whole of Ukraine will be conquered." Is working on Some flats in the building have been hit by direct missiles and nearby parked vehicles have crashed.

One thing that is missing from the Russian attacks in Kharkiv is astonishment. "Since 2014, we know the time has come. Maybe in a year, in ten years or in a thousand years. That time must have come. "

On February 24, Eugene received a call from a friend that an attack was imminent. "Then I heard the sound of rockets. Like everyone else here, they haven't been home since. When we left the front and came to the center of the city, it was like going to a new world." The city's 1.5 million people have fled because of repeated Russian bombings. There are few areas in the city that have not been devastated. In the morning, queues can be seen outside pharmacies, banks, supermarkets, and petrol stations. Behind-the-scenes work is being done on a large logistical and humanitarian basis to operate Kharkiv.

Before the curfew, I went to see Dr. Alexander Dhokowski at the city's Hospital No. 4. He is wearing a T-shirt under a white doctor's coat with the American flag emblazoned on it and the 2015 Miami Beach inscription. He has not been home for several weeks.

When I said that Russia is not targeting civilians, they started laughing. Then they quietly led me to a corridor where there were rows of Russian victims. They are in the aisle because Russian bombs fall nearby and patients are not safe in wards with large windows. Most of them have been injured in their homes. There is an intensive care unit for children on the ground floor. Eight-year-old Dmitry is lying on a bed. They have blood stains on their faces and hands. There are hundreds of bruises on his face, and his right eye is not completely closed. A few days ago, doctors removed a bullet from his head.

He is expected to be in good health, but his condition is critical. Tubes are coming out of his body and into plastic bottles. There are roses on his chador which rise and fall with his breath.

Vladimir Putin says he wants to disarm Ukraine but is building a "new mainland". At night the city is in complete darkness. There is a constant echo of Russian attacks throughout the night.

Kharkiv used to be the capital of Ukraine. It has parks, churches, museums and theaters. There is also an aircraft factory, tank and turbine makers.

But now the whole city is on the front lines.

But that shouldn't come as a surprise. Over the past ten years, Russia's war strategy has been improved through Syria, ie, besiege, besiege, and terrorize the population.

In Syria, as in Syria, citizens are being loaded onto buses and evacuated from their cities. And the Russian army is moving forward.

But Ukraine is still resisting.

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