Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, is enduring renewed hardships under Russian rocket attacks, causing some residents who had returned after the city's liberation in September 2022 to leave once more. The city, unlike Kyiv, Odessa, and other major Ukrainian cities, remains visibly scarred by the conflict, with businesses struggling to reopen and residents losing hope for a quick recovery. In Izyum, a part of Kharkiv Oblast, the situation is dire with almost complete destruction, including schools, leaving families like 11-year-old Bohdan's living in precarious conditions. Meanwhile, in the southeastern town of Orikhiv, the population has dwindled from around 14,000 pre-war to approximately 1,000, with nearly all buildings damaged. Despite the devastation, the remaining inhabitants of these areas are determined to stay, with some, like Svitlana, a grandmother in Orikhiv, sleeping in the brick-walled basement of her apartment block.
The Ukrainian town of Orikhiv is a shell of what it once was. Nearly 14,000 people lived here before the war. Now, there’s about 1,000. Those who remain say they aren't going anywhere https://t.co/lQl35W1Upd https://t.co/dU4z3i0iNf
The shattered Ukrainian town of Orikhiv has emptied to roughly 1,000 people from its pre-war population of around 14,000. Nearly all its of buildings are damaged, but those who remain say they aren't going anywhere https://t.co/lQl35W1Upd https://t.co/9zqIvND8M9
⚠️ RESIDENTS OF UKRAINE'S ORIKHIV TRY TO SURVIVE IN THE RUINS (Reuters) In the shattered town of Orikhiv not far from the southeastern front in Ukraine, Svitlana, a grandmother, sleeps in the brick-walled basement of her apartment block where she lives with her husband to… https://t.co/OauX3eYgR3
Unlike Kyiv, Odessa and other big cities, Kharkiv is visibly battered by the war. The windows of homes and shops remain boarded up. Some rural parts of the province are barely hanging on https://t.co/rtfaeY3sf2 👇
When Ukraine’s army forced the Russians out of Kharkiv in September 2022, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians returned. Businesses began to reopen last summer and residents hoped a Ukrainian victory was within reach. That optimism is now long gone https://t.co/mQUzjx4DFu 👇
11-year-old Bohdan lives with his grandmother and sister in a house torn apart by debris in Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast of Ukraine. The city was almost completely destroyed. The school was destroyed by shelling and is now closed. Bohdan's classmates left the city. In order to heat… https://t.co/Dyt1yoP2Vo
Kharkiv is struggling under Russian rocket attacks. Some who had returned to the liberated border region have begun to leave again, though so far the numbers are small. Those who remain fear that life will never return to normal https://t.co/njpcnbD8SG 👇