Continuous bombardment. A few residents resist underground in this district that Russia attacks relentlessly
Russia insists in its official communications that its “special operation” is focused on Donbas, but since February 24 its troops have not forgotten a single day in Kharkov. Ukraine’s second largest city is under daily attack and the Saltivka district in the northeast is the main target of Russian artillery. It is the closest point to a front line that is only a few kilometers away and it is also a kind of ghost zone that, before the war, housed more than 500,000 residents and now only has a few hundred. “We have gotten used to it, after two months the explosions have become a part of our lives, what can we do?” asks Sergei, the only neighbor in his entire block of flats who is resisting the war because “this is my house and I am not going to abandon it, I am going to repair the damage and I will have it ready for the day of victory, that day my wife and children will return from the safe place to which they have gone».
Sergei walks with his dog through the long Soviet-style avenues of this sleeping area full of parks and trees. Destruction and explosions coexist in a macabre balance in this district where bunkers are home to survivors. The United Nations raises the civilian deaths in Kharkov to 530 and, according to the municipality, 2,100 buildings have been damaged, most of them in Saltivka, which in two months could already be considered one of the areas in Europe most affected by bombing since the Second World War . The attacks are so continuous that the sirens no longer sound because the alert is permanent here.
Olga Ivanovna has changed her job as a real estate agent for that of organizer of the bunker of her building where thirty neighbors now sleep. The buildings erected during the USSR era have shelters in the basement, the floors are made of sand and you have to bend down so as not to get hurt by the network of pipes. In this bunker a stamp of Saint Michael watches over the safety of those present and they also have a small library.
«The worst were the first days, when everything was new for us. We didn’t know how long it was going to last and there were panic attacks. As the days went by, many people left and those of us who stayed have formed a whole family, we are united, we support each other and we want to be here until the end because this is our city, our homeland,” says Olga, whose agenda now includes the phones of all your neighbors. She maintains contact with all of them and they organize so that nothing is lacking in a district where they no longer remember what it is like to have electricity or running water. They could go to other neighborhoods in the city, get on a train to the western part of the country, travel to Europe… but they choose to stay.
accustomed to explosions
While taking notes a loud explosion makes the ground rumble. The projectile has hit very close and soon a huge gray smoke rises into the sky. He doesn’t flinch. “We’ve gotten used to it,” she says, busy preparing food in the communal kitchen outside the bunker.
Ukraine’s second largest city is under daily attack and the Saltivka district in the northeast is the main target of Russian artillery.
Life here has not changed after the Defense Ministry announced the liberation of ten villages on the outskirts of Kharkov that were in the hands of the enemy. The Ukrainian counter-offensive seems to have forced the Russians to delay their positions, but the attacks against Saltivka continue. That doesn’t change. “I want to thank the West for all the humanitarian aid that it sends us and for the good reception of our refugees, but above all I appreciate the sending of weapons to our troops because that is the key to resisting and winning this war,” says Olga, accompanied by Ludmila and her pet, a Yorkshire with a small ponytail.
The volume and number of detonations is surprising and even more surprising is the naturalness with which these survivors digest each of the attacks. The human being gets used to everything, to war too. Saltivka is the example.
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