Russia aims to make life unlivable in Ukraine’s second city

Three weeks on, Ukrainian forces have halted Russia’s advance north of Kharkiv, and Honcharova is staying put. But as Russia pounds the city with bombs and missiles, her bags remain ready by the door.

“We are living with our suitcases packed," the 48-year-old said while at the park with her son during a rare break in the air-raid alert that now sounds for as much as 16 hours a day.

Although the danger of a rapid advance on the city has receded, Russia has Kharkiv back in its sights. Ukrainian and Western officials say Moscow appears to be planning a grinding war of attrition to empty it of its population by making life there untenable.

The Kremlin has long coveted Kharkiv, which was once the capital of Soviet Ukraine. Moscow tried to foment a revolt in the predominantly Russian-speaking city in 2014 and reached its outskirts in 2022, in the early days of its full-blown invasion, before being pushed back by Ukrainian forces. 

Now, with the war in its third year, Russia is targeting Kharkiv’s energy infrastructure and battering the city with missiles and guided bombs while trying to push its artillery back in range.

“Of course, Putin still wants Kharkiv," Oleh Synehubov, the head of the military administration for the region—which is also called Kharkiv—said of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Synehubov noted that Russia has deployed only a fraction of the troops needed to storm the city, which he estimated could require up to half a million soldiers.

But Russia has girded for a long war. At worst, the Kremlin could replicate the strategy it used against Aleppo, Syria, in 2016, when the Russian air force—supporting the Syrian government in its civil war—destroyed electricity and water supplies and bombed hospitals and schools, said the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksandr Lytvynenko. The population of Aleppo fell to one-third of its prewar levels before the Assad regime retook the city from opposition forces.

“They simply forced the people out. This is what they want to practice around Kharkiv," Lytvynenko said in an interview.

In the past week alone, Russian missiles and guided bombs have targeted a printing house and a home-improvement store, killing more than 25 people. City authorities say there is no need to evacuate, but have advised residents not to ignore air-raid alerts, and to avoid public places. Billboards along the city’s freshly swept streets proclaim Kharkiv unbreakable.

But the growing danger has already prompted some parents with young children to leave, including some who came back to Kharkiv after Ukrainian forces routed Russia from the region in the fall of 2022. Those who remain face the growing dangers with an attitude somewhere between defiance and fatalism.

Russia’s strategy of taking cities could be evolving as the war progresses, Lytvynenko said, noting that it had razed the southern port city of Mariupol in the early weeks of the war in part because of a miscalculation over how difficult it would be to seize it.

Russian military planners had envisaged a relatively lightly armed maneuverable army rapidly advancing into Ukraine and demoralizing and destroying Ukrainian resistance. After encountering fierce opposition, the Russian army reverted to timeworn habits of Soviet military planners, using massed artillery and armor to progress, he said.

Putin denied plans to capture Kharkiv during a state visit to China last month. The offensive aims to carve out a buffer zone to protect towns near the border from Ukrainian attacks, he said. “As for Kharkiv, there are no such plans as of today," he said. In April, however, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the city had “an important role" in plans to establish a so-called sanitary zone.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia’s incursion in Kharkiv had sought to capitalize on a delay in Western military aid, which is now reaching the front line after months of deadlock in Congress. “We’re seeing that have a real effect, including in stabilizing the front and in clearly denying Putin what he was after, which is to try to take Kharkiv, to create at the very least a massive flight from the city," he said.

To counter the Russian moves, the Biden administration on Thursday said for the first time it would allow Ukrainian forces to use artillery and fire short-range rockets against command posts, arms depots and other assets on Russian territory that are being used in the attack on Kharkiv. The policy doesn’t permit the use of longer-range missiles.

The Russian campaign to terrorize Kharkiv residents came before the latest offensive and could continue beyond it as well. Weeks before Russia reinvaded the region, residents received messages apparently from local authorities advising them to leave before the city was encircled. The messages were fake—part of a Russian disinformation campaign that reveals Moscow’s intent to squeeze life out of the city.

A massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure soon followed. Missiles damaged several electricity substations and destroyed the Zmiivska thermal power plant, wiping out the region’s power generation capacity. The region is now importing power from other parts of Ukraine to keep the lights on. A missile also toppled the Kharkiv television tower—a city landmark and an important element of local communications infrastructure.

Russia began dropping guided bombs, unleashing a new kind of terror on residents. Until then, Russia had largely used such bombs to smash through Ukrainian defenses on the front line. Kharkiv’s proximity to the border meant that Russian aircraft could release the bombs targeting the city from Russian territory since Kyiv wasn’t permitted to use Western weapons to hit back.

Meanwhile, Russian forces were massing near the border with Kharkiv. Ukrainian officials noted a buildup of troops in Russia’s Belgorod region in early May, but the offensive still appeared to catch them unprepared. Russian armored vehicles and assault infantry crossed the border on May 10 in a two-pronged assault toward the towns of Vovchansk, about 43 miles from Kharkiv, and Lyptsi—a half-hour drive from the city’s northern outskirts.

As Ukrainian forces fought to stem losses, four missiles slammed into a workshop at a printing house tucked away in a quiet part of the city. Faktor Druk, which prints about 40% of Ukraine’s books, had been gearing up to begin producing textbooks in time for the next school year when the missiles struck midmorning. Instead, workers are now mourning the deaths of seven colleagues and clearing up tens of thousands of burned books turned to pulp by the water used to douse the flames.

Why Russia would target a printing press is no mystery to owner Serhiy Polituchiy, who was raised in Russia himself. It was a strike at the heart of Ukraine’s identity, he said: “The core of any nation is its culture."

Standing amid the ruins, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on global leaders to take part in a coming peace summit, warning that Russia was massing troops for a fresh thrust across the border northwest of Kharkiv.

The next blow fell on a home-improvement store. Security camera footage shows customers browsing the aisles oblivious to the three bombs that were about to crash down on them.

It took 16 hours to extinguish the blaze at Epicenter, the country’s equivalent of Home Depot. Paint and other flammable products on sale fueled the fire, incinerating victims of the strike along with homeware and building materials.

Emergency services used security camera footage to pinpoint where people were at the moment of impact, plotting their locations on a floor plan of the store. With the help of sniffer dogs, they sifted through ash looking for traces of human matter, said Serhiy Bolvinov, a senior police officer.

In the car park, flowers, stuffed animals and candles are laid in tribute to the 19 victims of the strike. “This is pure terrorism," said Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, appealing for air-defense systems to protect the city.

Elena Tetarenko, who works across the street from the site, continues to take breaks from serving customers buying hair and beauty products outside her store, despite continued air-raid alerts. On the day of the attack, she had returned home by the time the bombs fell, but talk of the city’s plight brought her to tears. “It’s a nightmare," she said.

Despite the mounting stresses, Tetarenko and her husband have no intention of leaving Kharkiv unless Russia were to occupy the city. “We will be here until the end."

Isabel Coles, Alan Cullison