‘Kharkiv Is Unbreakable’: A Battered City Carries On
Russian attacks have destroyed all three major power stations, but residents continue to live and work with only a few, often unpredictable, hours of electricity each day. More than 100 schools have been damaged or destroyed but classes go on, deep underground in subway stations. Dozens of fire and paramedic stations have been blown up, putting first responders in daily jeopardy but failing to deter them from their jobs.
“When a rocket hits, within three to four hours, all the glass is cleaned up, all the central roads are cleared,” said Andrii Dronov, the 39-year-old deputy chief of the Kharkiv Fire Department. “By morning, it looks like nothing happened and there were no explosions.”
As the attacks intensify, though, there are real questions about how much longer Kharkiv, 25 miles from the Russian border, can hold on without more robust air defenses. Since March, Russia has been bombarding it for the first time with one of the deadliest weapons in its arsenal: powerful guided bombs known as glide bombs, dropped from warplanes, that deliver hundreds of pounds of explosives in a single blast.
