On Tuesday morning, as news broke of Russia's vicious missile strikes on civilian targets all across Ukraine, I texted a friend in the badly hit city of Kharkiv.
"We will not be intimidated," Oleksiy quickly texted back. (I am using only his first name because he is now serving with the Ukrainian army.) "Kharkiv is ready for this." He told me he was cooking borscht on a makeshift outdoor grill as we spoke because a barrage of Russian missiles had knocked out electricity in the city. The Russians had also targeted a children's playground, civilian apartment blocks, and a downtown crossroads at morning rush hour.
"We will win. We will teach everyone how to love their land and their home," Oleksiy told me. "There is an expression from 2014 [when Russia first invaded Ukraine]: 'You don't need to die for your homeland. You need to kill for your homeland!' That is our motto now." He meant killing Russian soldiers, not murdering civilians, as Vladimir Putin prefers.
