A picture taken on March 23, 2022 shows the damage at a school which has been destroyed in a Russian air bomb in Kharkiv.
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)In our heroic but heavily damaged city we’ve become somewhat defiantly complacent. I’ve even just spent my third night in my own flat instead of an air raid shelter.
There were no new attacks from the air since March 17 when the last rocket struck.
It caused a huge fire at the Berabashova Market, the largest in Eastern Europe. The smoke blocked half of the sky over the city for two days but was localized with the efforts of municipal firefighters, costing one life.
Random artillery attacks are still ongoing, affecting the east of the city with casualties reported daily.
You will have heard about one of the victims, 96-year-old Borys Romanchenko, a survivor of four Nazi concentration camps. He was burned alive after Russian artillery hit his flat. Survived Hitler, murdered by Putin.
Many men have returned to the city after escorting their families to safety. In my neighbourhood, several people have been gathering medicine and food. I saw one of them, “Yuriy the Bullet”, a cycling activist, from my balcony in the morning. Hours later he’d been killed during artillery shelling of those delivering medicines.
During the past week, more and more shops have remained open. The queues to the supermarkets have shortened and remarkably most things are still accessible.
Downtown, many have returned to their homes. Fewer people spend nights in the improvised shelters like metro stations, despite the sound of artillery at night.
Even the road cleaning teams are out there working. Spring brings new hope, energy and the zeal to survive and live freely.
But even as I’m concluding this, there’s been a new missile attack. Fortunately the rocket was apparently shot down by our guys.
So, the cowards are at it again, striking at civilians from behind the bushes. The only thing it seems the “mighty” Russian army is capable of.
