On the morning of February 24, fakes were circulating in social networks that the authorities had fled in Kharkov, the army had been defeated, and enemy equipment would enter the city in the afternoon. And at some point it seemed true, because Kharkov for years lived with the stigma “pro-Russian city”, mainly because of the Russian language, which most of the townspeople communicate. But the characterization turned out to be false, the city has been heroically resisting since the first day of the war, and not only the army, but also the civilian population: under shelling, drivers take people to a relatively safe area, taxi drivers sort out the rubble, public utilities take out garbage and sweep the streets, restaurants prepare food for those who lost their homes, ordinary men and women fight each on their own front and do what they can, if only to bring victory closer.
Terrorists, on the other hand, iron the city with hail, cover it with bombs, destroy it with rockets, their targets are residential buildings, hospitals, schools, kindergartens. It seems that they are simply taking revenge on Kharkov for disobedience. Kharkiv journalist Tatyana Dotsyak asked the local mayor Igor Terekhov about life in Kharkov, seriously wounded, but even stronger and more beautiful.
— Igor Alexandrovich, what is the current situation in the city? Has the number of shelling and bombings decreased? How many children have been killed and injured since February 24, and how many victims and injured among the civilian population of Kharkov?
“More than 500 wounded, I won’t talk about civilian casualties, but you see that we have civilian casualties every day, and this is very serious. As for the shelling, somewhere the emphasis has shifted, somewhere it hasn’t shifted, because at night they bomb more, during the day – a little less, but, in fact, this is a very misleading situation, because it constantly arrives, we constantly have destruction, no one actually began to bomb less.
— If you look at operational photos or videos, it seems that the entire city has been destroyed. Speaking in numbers, how many destroyed houses, schools, hospitals, how many houses without gas, water, electricity? Which areas are the most affected? Are cultural landmarks destroyed?
— Of course there are (destroyed architectural monuments— Ed.), a lot of houses… They also fell into architectural monuments, which were of different meanings. According to general data, as of March 21, 972 buildings were destroyed in our country, of which 778 were residential buildings. About 65 schools, 49 kindergartens, 11 hospitals and polyclinics were damaged in our country. This is the situation now, but we are talking, or maybe we will go out into the street – and everything is already different there.
Regarding the heat supply system, water supply – we supply water, although at reduced modes, but we supply, we had certain situations, but today we have resumed water supply. As for heat supply, today we supply heat to virtually all undestroyed houses.
The only thing I urge people not to be in houses, but to be in specialized premises – these are bomb shelters, basements, underground, for in order to save life. It is clear that Northern Saltovka suffers a lot, the KhTZ region, but in fact the central part too. Today it is impossible to say that the region is dangerous here, it is safe here. All areas are dangerous.
— How many people live in the metro, how long are they there? How did you manage to provide life in the subway: food, medicine, water? Where do you get the money for all this?
– About 15 thousand people are in the subway – many go out during the day, return in the evening. Together with the volunteers, we provide food, some of it we deliver or distribute food to the volunteers, they prepare food and also bring it to the subway.
Regarding medicines and food: we receive both through the Office of the President, and from other cities, and from the mayors of other cities. I turned to the mayors, and all the mayors responded, today we receive food, medicines, in addition, aid comes from abroad, which we distribute to people. We give people warm clothes, blankets, because they need to hide, get dressed. We do everything so that people are in conditions adapted to life.
— How many people, according to your calculations, left the city, and how many remained?
— Any figure is very approximate, it is impossible to say for sure now. But I believe that most of the city remained, many do not want to go, do not want to leave Kharkiv, because they were born here, they live.
— How do you manage to supply the city with bread? Kharkiv residents who remained in the city report that supermarkets even have a range of products, pharmacies operate – how do you manage to do this? Is there any business operating in the city?
— I appealed to all entrepreneurs to work, especially supermarkets and grocery stores. Now there will be a very tough conversation, because in one of the supermarkets there is an overpricing. Yes, not the assortment, of course, but, in general, I can say that the assortment that people need. Regarding bread, you know that we import flour, give it away, they make bread for us, we receive bread and distribute it free of charge to people. The biscuit factory gave us two wagons of biscuits. Products come to us, and everything that is, we “with wheels” we distribute to people.
We have 60 pharmacies. Yes, there are queues there, but the problem is that the selling pharmacists refuse to work, they can be understood because of the constant shelling. But we are supplied with insulin, we received the drug from the President's Office, we distribute it to insulin dependents. Now a truck is coming to us from Chicago. I talked with the mayor of Chicago, they sent us a lot of medical assistance, so in a day or two more medicines will come to us.
Therefore, you know, the whole friendly Kharkov family is holding on, helping each other, this is very it is important that people feel that we are all in this together, and we are. When you see the spirit that dominates Kharkov today, and this spirit will make Ukraine and Kharkov win.
“Kharkiv, even in the conditions of war, is trying to keep the brand of the cleanest city. How do you manage to persuade public utilities to take out the garbage, clean the snow, repair damaged heating systems under the threat of shelling and even under shelling? accustomed to far. However, I am grateful to all our public utilities, especially since yesterday was the day of housing and communal services workers. At first, of course, people were afraid, but then we talked, people understood and there was no need to mobilize them. I am infinitely grateful to the KVBO drivers who clean up the garbage.
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Separately, I want to tell you about the thermal workers and workers of the water utility. What they are doing today, laying new heating mains instead of the broken ones, organizing the supply of water, despite the shelling and broken reservoirs, how we start boiler houses, which are broken in the evening, they work all night to start, because the weather is cold, so that it doesn’t work out like that, that we will unfreeze the system. To do this, we are producing jumpers, laying new pipelines, despite the fact that constant shelling. In reality, these are heroes who today are doing an invaluable work to ensure life in Kharkiv.
—On the first day of the war, messages were circulating in social networks that the city would surrender power, that invader equipment would enter Kharkiv in the afternoon. Do you think the enemy really expected the city to not resist?
“I can’t comment on what they were counting on!” We see today's realities, you look at our military today, to have such an army is worth a lot! And the spirit that reigns in our army today is very cool! Look at our territorial defense fighters, how they defend the city of Kharkiv – that's cool too!
In general, the city is so close-knit, I don’t know why someone thought that it was possible to come to the territory of Ukraine and conquer it. In my opinion, this is simply impossible, how can you shoot civilians, attack a peaceful country? But if attacked, then we respond today as it should! We are liberating our Motherland, we have not attacked anyone, we are protecting the future of our children, the elderly, all the inhabitants of Ukraine!
And how could you think that you can just go in, and this is their territory? This will never happen! All the people have risen today! I can tell you that more and more people are signing up for the defense, this is a popular confrontation! This is the conviction of every person, and everyone is mobilized today, there is one common goal – not to let the Russians in and not to give the opportunity to conquer Kharkov, not to give the opportunity to conquer Ukraine, and we are united by this, and who is on what front… Yes, it is important. Who is now fighting under bullets, under shells, and who is repairing pipes under bullets and shells, and who is covering the broken windows of houses with foil, and also under bullets, under shells. All heroes!
– You “were out&# 8221; representatives of the Russian Federation? Did they offer to hand over the city, like the mayors of other settlements? If so, how was it and what did you say to them?
“No one came out to me. There was a mailing list, once it was sent, I know, to all the leaders of the region, cities, who offered to enter into some kind of negotiations. There was nothing else. How can you offer, tell me, on the other side they also see how everyone is opposing, what can I talk about with them?
— Has the mentality of the city changed during the days of a full-scale war? Indeed, until February 24, in predominantly Russian-speaking Kharkiv, many people did not believe in a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine.
– Nobody believed that it could be that they would destroy residential buildings, there would be casualties among the civilian population and that there would be a war, in Kharkov, of course, they did not believe. And it was even more intensified by the fact that Kharkov is a Russian-speaking city. In Kharkov, every fourth person has many relatives, comrades or friends in the Russian Federation, it used to be – spent the night on a train, left in the evening, in the morning you are already in Moscow, so of course, this is a completely different mentality of people, and what happened to Kharkov today, the mentality of people turned 180 degrees.
Today, more than one generation must pass in order for the attitude towards the Russian Federation to change. Kharkiv has always considered itself Ukraine, we have never considered ourselves not a part of Ukraine, this is a very erroneous opinion that if people speak Russian, they do not respect their country and do not give everything to have an independent, integral Ukraine. Actually, it is not. Most speak Russian, but that doesn't stop them from being Ukrainians.
—Are there any plans for Kharkov right after the victory? What will be done first?
—We will restore everything, we will go along many vectors, we cannot say that we will rebuild one part of the city or another. Today, architects are already working on restoration processes, we are working on certain legislative initiatives, because amendments to the law are needed so that we follow the accelerated procedure. We will build housing, cultural facilities, infrastructure. We will only build differently, and there will be other requirements for buildings and structures, ranging from energy efficiency to underground parking lots, shelters.
