'It was silent ... then it was hell' -- in the path of Russia's move on Kharkiv

[Celerity]

A fierce battle is under way for Ukraine’s second city as Moscow launches the biggest ground assault on the region for two years. Soldiers caught up in the fighting tell their story

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-was-silent-then-it-was-hell-russia-renews-strikes-on-kharkiv-7r9w6bp2m

https://archive.ph/U8nZi



The soldiers had spent almost a fortnight digging trenches day and night to deter Russian forces from crossing the border north of Kharkiv, but at about two o’clock on Friday morning the enemy came crashing through. Russia’s new assault on Ukraine’s second city had begun. “It was silent at first, and then it was hell,” said platoon commander Nikita a few hours later, speaking from his mother’s home in Kharkiv. “We held the artillery. That’s it. We stood watching it all.” For the next 12 hours, he and his platoon tried to ward off Russian attacks, which came from multiple directions in the form of drones, artillery, tanks and infantrymen.



The hardest part of the battle was the first six hours as enemy forces moved through a border that had remained intact for over a year. “We detained, repelled in full, and we inflicted a very big blow on them,” Nikita said. “We had no wounded or killed.” Leo, a soldier from the same brigade stationed at another point, watched the Russians as they infiltrated Ukrainian positions. His own section came under fire at 11.30am on Friday in a battle that lasted 15 to 20 minutes. They all got out alive, he said. “But I saw other soldiers who were dead,” he added. “The Russians went into the trenches.” The rest of the day passed in a blur as the Ukrainians fought to stop enemy soldiers from occupying villages around the border. At one point, while evacuating civilians, Leo made eye contact with an elderly woman whose face was filled with fear and hopelessness. “I felt sad for her,” he said.



Russia said on Saturday that its forces had captured five villages — Pletenivka, Ohirtseve, Borysivka, Pylna and Strilechna — which lie in the “grey zone” along the Ukrainian border, which, at its closest, is less than 30 miles from Kharkiv. The Ukrainian military, which rushed reinforcements to the Kharkiv region on Friday, said the Russian advance had been halted. “The enemy is localised in the ‘grey zone’, it is not expanding,” said Nazar Voloshyn, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern command. “However, there is the question of finally destroying it and catching it in the tree lines where it could hide.”



Ukrainian forces also launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Saturday on Russia’s Belgorod, Kursk and Volgograd, Russia’s defence ministry said. This is the biggest ground assault Russia has launched in the Kharkiv region since its forces retreated after failing to take the city in May 2022, just three months after Vladmir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. A “fierce battle” was under way in Kharkiv, President Zelensky said on Friday, adding: “We must disrupt Russian offensive operations and return the initiative to Ukraine.”



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[niyad]

1. Heartbroken KNR.

[DFW]

2. I hope my nephew is nowhere near there this weekend.

He lives in Kyiv, and usually doesn't travel outside the city except for special projects or for coming back to the west.

Kharkiv, as the Ukies' second city, is a strategic as well as a morally important city. I hope our arms can get there in time to repel Putin's advance.