KHARKIV, Ukraine — In the night sky over what was once a vibrant European metropolis, the stars blaze down. So little light is emanating from Ukraine’s second-biggest city that the constellations above are, like they were centuries ago, vivid in the blackness.
Kharkiv, home to nearly 1.5 million people before the war, has suffered the most relentless Russian bombardment of any Ukrainian city other than the battered southern port of Mariupol. Hundreds are dead; the living — the third or so of the population that remains — are hungry and terrorized.
Whole city blocks have fallen to ruins, lined with burned car husks. The sheared-off facade of a shelled apartment building reveals a tableau of life interrupted: charred books, stuffed animals, coffee cups. The golden spires of a landmark Orthodox cathedral are scarred by shrapnel.
