KHARKIV BECOMING A GHOST CITY

 

KHARKIV BECOMING A GHOST CITY

Russian occupation troops attack Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region every day with guided aerial bombs, drones and other weapons. The Russian Federation actually wants to turn the millionaire city into a "gray zone" unsuitable for life. Kharkiv Oblast is one of the regions of Ukraine most affected by Russian aggression. In February-April 2022, significant areas of the region were occupied by Russian troops.

Over the past month, as a result of Russian attacks in Kharkiv, almost the entire energy infrastructure has been destroyed, and it will not be possible to quickly restore it after Russian shelling. Today, despite shelling and power outages, more than a million residents remain in the city.

Currently, the situation in the energy system of the region is extremely difficult - the main generating capacities of the city and region (TPP-5, Zmiivska TPP), as well as most of the transformer substations, have been destroyed, which has led to a shortage of generation and the introduction of forced power outages for 7-12 hours.

Putin's scenario of destroying Ukrainian border towns with the Russian Federation and front-line cities threatens Ukraine with catastrophic consequences. In this way, the Kremlin is preparing the ground for the biggest humanitarian disaster. Against the background of international inaction, Putin wants to turn Ukraine into a lifeless fire.

In March of this year, Putin used the term "sanitary zone" for the first time in relation to the Kharkiv region bordering the Russian Federation. This non-military term is applied to territories that have become uninhabitable due to man-made or natural disasters. Therefore, making Kharkiv uninhabitable is one of the goals of the Russians, and the proximity of the city to the Russian border, according to the Kremlin's plan, greatly simplifies the task of carrying out a genocide of the civilian population. The Kremlin administration has repeatedly announced plans to mobilize almost 300,000 people into the army, in particular for the operation to encircle Kharkiv.

Today, in Kharkiv, Russia is practicing new weapons and tactical techniques of "double touch" (repeated shelling of the same target). In particular, on March 27, the city was hit for the first time by a highly destructive hovering bomb launched from an airplane, on April 4, drones attacked residential buildings, and when emergency services arrived there, they struck again, resulting in the death of three rescuers.

According to the authoritative edition of The Economist, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, ordered his army to capture Ukrainian cities after their destruction. For this, the Russians have a three-stage plan.

At the first stage, missile and bomb strikes are designed to sow panic among the civilian population and force them to flee. The second stage involves the destruction of the residential and industrial infrastructure of Ukrainian cities with the aim of making them uninhabitable. And finally, in the third stage, the destroyed and deserted cities will be stormed by units of the advancing Russian occupation forces.

The Kremlin has realized that Moscow will not be able to achieve significant military successes at the front in the near future. Therefore, instead of directly attacking the territory bordering Russia, the Kremlin seeks to create so-called "gray zones" where the population cannot be located. With constant strikes, Russia wants to encourage the population of Kharkiv to leave the city.

During the past month, the Russian army used a record number of anti-aircraft missiles — more than 2,300. Production of three-ton FAB-3000 bombs was also resumed. Journalists assume that, under certain conditions, Russians can hypothetically use up to 5,000 KABs every month.

Such a scenario threatens Ukraine with catastrophic consequences: millions of Ukrainians will be forced to flee to Europe, which will be on the brink of a migration crisis.

In turn, Russian propagandists and politicians openly voice calls for genocide and terror against those Ukrainian cities that for years they called "historically theirs." Therefore, Russian war criminals want to destroy Kharkiv with special, incomprehensible cruelty. The Russian army is attacking Kharkiv and the region with rockets, anti-aircraft missiles, and Shaheds, using methods of repeated strikes to increase the number of victims.

For Vladimir Putin, the presence of a Russian-speaking population in the city is not a factor of additional mercy. And even vice versa - Putin considers the Russian-speaking city of Kharkiv to be his property and is convinced that he can do whatever he wants with it.

Russian propaganda is trying to present the intensification of its terror in the Kharkiv region as alleged "revenge" for the combat actions of Russian volunteers in the Kursk and Belgorod regions of the Russian Federation, as well as for the terrorist attack in "Crocus City Hall", unjustifiably blaming Ukraine for this.

Russia still hopes to increase the number of people in Ukraine who will agree to "peace at any price." The purpose of such a policy is to force people to stop thinking about the end of hostilities, which means to put an end to the Euro-Atlantic and European integration of Ukraine.

Therefore, the security of Kharkiv Oblast cannot be guaranteed by the cessation of hostilities on the Russian border, but by strengthening the defense of the Ukrainian border. In particular, the deployment of additional air defense systems and the creation of a demilitarized zone on Russian territory.

 

 

Wasyl Ostapiak – Ph.D., professor at the Department of Public Management and Administration of the Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)