May 20, 2024

As Russia marches on with its offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials are plowing ahead with rebuilding what Russian strikes have torn down—as many times as needed.

“Regardless of the effect of war, we still can rebuild now, in Kharkiv,” Mariia Mezentseva, a Ukrainian MP and Kharkiv native, told Newsweek. “In Kharkiv right now, you can be in a restaurant, you can be in a swimming pool, you can be in a gym, you can conduct projects and you can deliver aid, but at the same time, any minute, shelling can occur. Some people are not very sure if tomorrow their café or restaurant or shop will even exist.”

“Life goes on,” Konstantin Ananchenko, who oversees the department for youth and sports under the Kharkiv regional military administration, also told Newsweek on Monday, speaking via an interpreter. “We call ourselves unbreakable.”

Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv spent long weeks under heavy aerial bombardment before Russian forces poured over the border into the wider Kharkiv region earlier this month. Moscow’s troops made quick gains in two pockets along the border, north of the city and down towards Vovchansk, a Ukrainian city close to the Russian border.

Ukrainian officials quickly said Russia hoped to push Kyiv into pulling scarce resources from other points along the hundreds of miles of frontline fighting—equipment and troops sorely needed in the likes of the eastern Donetsk region or further south in Zaporizhzhia.

Russia has claimed a smattering of villages in the north of the Kharkiv region as fierce clashes rage on. On Monday, Kharkiv’s regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said that although the situation around Vovchansk had “stabilized,” fighting continued in “almost every street” in the city itself. Western experts say Russian forces have advanced in the north and into the center of Vovchansk.

It isn’t yet clear whether Russia hopes to advance on the city of Kharkiv. It would be a significant prize for Russia, but would require miles of advances south and overcoming Ukraine’s committed defense of one of its major hubs. Russian President Vladimir Putin said over the weekend that Moscow had no current plans to attempt to take the city.

Modified Soviet-era bombs, fitted with pop-out wings and guidance kits, can be launched from Russian jets safely above Russian territory into Kharkiv. Out of the range of Ukraine’s air defenses, the bombs have proved difficult for Ukraine to contend with.

Under the threat of shelling, children are still being urged to play sports, and athletes are still training in and around the city, Ananchenko said. Gyms, sports venues and community facilities that lay in rubble have been repaired, he said.

It is “very important” to immediately rebuild in the Kharkiv region, said Heorhii Pazii, who oversees youth programs for the Kharkiv regional authorities. The war has razed many youth centers across Kharkiv to the ground, but it is a priority to get Ukraine’s social infrastructure back up and running, he told Newsweek.

All this work is done under the shadow of the knowledge that one Russian strike could undo the reconstruction efforts. But with no end in sight to the war, Ukrainian officials see little other choice apart from to piece back together the city, and the region, although it lies firmly in Russia’s crosshairs.

Many residents have moved around the Kharkiv region to avoid the brunt of Russia’s push. More than 10,500 people have been evacuated from several parts of the region since Moscow opened up the new front, governor Syniehubov said on Monday.

But some people who had fled Kharkiv have now returned to the regional capital, Ananchenko said. Some have remained throughout, and “they continue to live their lives,” he added.

Other officials say the same. “Despite everything, you can see the city is alive, that no one is running away,” Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov told CNN.

Ukraine’s military has stressed the situation is “dynamic.” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, told Agence France-Presse late last week that Kyiv had “to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory.”

Recent attacks may only be a “first wave,” Zelensky warned. On a future attack on the city of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian leader added that Russia understood that Ukraine “will fight for a long time” to preserve the settlement.

https://www.newsweek.com/kharkiv-ukraine-russia-offensive-rebuilding-1902523