Kharkiv was a prosperous city. That was before Russian president Vladimir Putin let loose his military men on Ukraine and its people. Today Kharkiv is a heap of rubble, debris and dust. Though some determined survivors have chosen to stay back, Kharkiv looks like a world that has been lost for ever, for humanity. Business, commerce and trade are dead. The rich were the first to flee out and they did so in 2022.
Deserve Doffing of the Hat
The politics of pain that is playing out in Kharkiv is beyond words. Power stations have been bombed and left paralysed and inactive. Paucity of power has become more painful than the actual bombing. As Russia steadily escalates its offensive in Kharkiv, the attacks are becoming tests for survivors’ will to save what little is left of Kharkiv. Despite the initial frantic exodus, the numbers of those fleeing to pastures of protection seem to have thinned.
With reason. There are not many Kharkivans left in the city for fleeing. However, the few remaining folks are determined to fight the armed Russians. They deserve doffing of the hat. Despite no signs of investments coming in, remaining petty businesses are girding themselves for survival with the little demand that emerges internally. While this reflects Kharkivans’ exemplary resilience, the scale of destruction in Kharkiv shows recovery will not be swift.
Prepared to Defend their Nation
Such is their resilience and so steely is their will to sweat it out, Kharkiv is not dead for its remaining denizens. Even as air-raid sirens blare at regular intervals, at least twelve times a day, workaday lives of the few determined staying Kharkivans go on as usual. Older individuals and children from surviving Kharkiv families can be seen taking strolls in almost-abandoned parks, plundered by glide bombs. Missiles continue to land nearby, but the spunky strollers soldier on.
Surviving children from staying families are raring to get schooled. While schools work underground, entry points are created in soccer fields. The schools sport the same determined look of their attendees. The RCC structures are so deep under the earth that they are capable of surviving Russian bombings. Above all, every one of them, both the teachers and the taught, are prepared to defend their nation, if and when called for.
Carefully Avoiding the Craters
For many Kharkivans, battered benches in abandoned parks have become living rooms. They are prepared to use these open-air living rooms as workshops for Molotov cocktails and acid bulbs that they are called in to make. Defending Ukraine, particularly Kharkiv, reigns paramount among their concerns. As Kharkiv battles air-defence snags and shortages, Kharkivans sweat it out in power outages. This is double whammy.
Nevertheless, Kharkivans are oozing with hopes, which seem to wipe their sweat. Bouncy older people go around doing their daily chores. Carefully avoiding the craters caused by Russian bombs, they wend their way through a sea of shattered glasses and torched trees. Even when they are evacuated from Kharkivan villages under attack, they reluctantly leave with heavy hearts and hopes of returning someday.
Summer Offensive Shaping up
Kharkivans’ hearts are heavy with guilt then. They feel bad about leaving their homes. Their villages are so badly hit as the frontline villages are. Yet that advantage no longer holds good now. Mercilessly, Russia is using air-defence shortages in Kharkiv to tear down its power stations, terrorise its villages and torment its people. As scary aerial-glide bombs continue to drop on Kharkiv, the fear is palpable. Winter is approaching and the fears are only rising further.
Perhaps this is how Mr Putin is rehearsing for his summer offensive, which is said to be on its way. As this offensive looms ahead, a wilting Kharkiv is pinning its hopes on sophisticated arms and financial aid from the West. Both seem to take their own sweet time. Meanwhile, Kharkivans are managing to live through blinding blackouts. This is making trade unpliable and Kharkiv homes unliveable. The plight of those living near the Belgorod border with Russia has become unspeakably worse.
The Poliphoon’s Last Word
Battered Kharkiv is at least serving one useful purpose. It has alerted Ukraine so much that Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is leaving nothing to chance. His army has been fortifying the frontlines and digging trenches on the outskirts, and along the borders. As the Ukrainian army is not showing any fatigue, the Kharkivan will to survive and succeed too isn’t breaking. Politics of perseverance is triumphing over politics of pain in Kharkiv.
