Kharkiv Tour: Dima and Maria

Full Photo Album: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAW86m

Anastasia’s cousins, Dima and Maria, are from Kharkiv and were living there when the Russians first invaded in early 2022. After time away during the occupation, they recently returned home and agreed to show us the devastation and beauty of their beloved and besieged city.

Kharkiv is just a few miles from the Russian border in Eastern Ukraine. In 2022, the Russians turned tail when they encountered brave resistance from Ukrainian forces. You can still see the Russian tank track marks on the road to and from the border.

Before civilians could flee and Ukraine had the anti-air defense system they have today (thanks to U.S. support), Russians fired indiscriminately at civilian targets, including apartment buildings in Kharkiv’s beautiful historical center.

You can see the memorials on buildings all around town. Some photos show where two elderly grandmothers died; just a few blocks away is another building with a memorial where seven died. Today, Russians continue to bomb Kharkiv civilian targets, just as they did when we were there, but with far less effectiveness.

There is a new monument with stuffed children’s toys left below, which is Kharkiv’s new monument to the many children murdered by the Russian military from Kharkiv.

On the outskirts of town, heading towards the Russian border, is the now almost infamous suburb of Saltovka. This place was the tip of the spear of the northeastern portion of the Russian invasion in 2022.

As you will see from my photos, there is a playground in full view of wholly devastated buildings where hundreds of people once lived, and many died at the hands of Russian aggression. A smell permeated the place, and I was told that this was likely the body parts of those still buried in the rubble. Dima and María were still visibly moved by the devastation. As for me, I had a hard time taking it all in; the destruction and realization of how many must have been murdered in their own homes was just too significant of a scale for me to appreciate fully.

While in Saltovka, we interviewed a lovely family of four who once lived in this apartment building. The daughter, Svitlana, spoke English. She said they had returned to retrieve a washer that somehow survived. Remarkably, some of their neighbors still live in these buildings in Saltovka, probably because they have nowhere else to go.

Some of their surviving neighbors couldn’t leave and lived in tents in the shadows of the damaged buildings. Svitlana’s family has moved to the country, and despite the terror of almost being murdered (they hid in the building basement for nine days while the Russians destroyed their home) and losing most of their worldly belongings and many of their neighbors, they could smile. Even Oskar, the dog, seemed happy. Their attitude in the face of devastation and trauma perfectly reflects the residents of Kharkiv and Ukraine’s resilience.