Russians bomb Kharkiv - but the resistance of the Ukrainians is unbroken
At the end of his strength, a firefighter in front of a bombed house. A young woman rescued from the rubble is given emergency care; the whole nightmare of this war is reflected in her fear-wide eyes.
With 1.5 million inhabitants, Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine was the country's second-largest city before the war.
Now death and devastation reign and thousands have fled Kharkiv. The Russians again bombed a residential area; many died and were injured, suffering immeasurable.
But give up, go away, and leave everything to the Russian invaders. That's not an option.
Avdiivka resembles a ghost town: abandoned blocks of houses, only a few people are on the street.
Located just a few kilometers from the occupied city of Donetsk, Avdiivka is one of the first targets Putin wants to bring under Russian control in his forthcoming major offensive!
Most of the former 32,000 residents have fled. The supply has collapsed, and helpers bring food and water to the city. A few older people gather at the distribution point and take the aid packages from the white van. Right next to it is a crater with the remains of a Russian 9M22 missile in it.
While some residents stayed in their homes, two dozen residents fled to a makeshift bunker, some of whom had been staying there for more than a month.
Lena (32) fled to the bunker with her son Ivan (6), where she took care of the elderly and distributed food. "When the bombs hit, we'll play cards against fear." But unfortunately, her small business was already destroyed, and since then, the young mother has been left with nothing. "I would flee with Ivan, but I don't know where to go, and we don't have the money to go anywhere else."
The Russian war of aggression has been going on for seven weeks now; up to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed – but Ukraine is probably facing the worst now: the mega Easter offensive in Donbas! Putin's plan: The Russian army should encircle the region in the east and up to 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers there. For this, Putin has sent 60,000 soldiers and heavy artillery.
So far, however, the Russian troops have hardly been able to report any gains in territory. But there was a severe setback: after much hesitation, the Kremlin had to admit this week that the strategically enormously important missile cruiser "Moskva" ("Pride of the Black Sea Fleet") had sunk.
Russia responded with increased attacks on Ukrainian cities:
► There were several explosions in the southeast of Kyiv. According to Russian information, the production facilities of a tank factory were destroyed. Mayor Vitali Klitschko (50) warned all residents of the capital who had fled not to return.
► According to Ukrainian sources, the Lviv region in the west was attacked with cruise missiles. Russian military aircraft took off from Belarus.
► On the Black Sea, fiercely fought over for weeks, Mariupol is in ruins. Tens of thousands were evacuated.
Many Ukrainians must watch the destruction in disbelief. "I have no words for the genocide of the Ukrainians, for what the Hitler admirers from the Kremlin did in Bucha and Mariupol," said Holocaust survivor Anastasia Guley (96) at a commemoration event on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Guley fled Kyiv to Germany in early March.