A Ukrainian policeman stands inside a school gym, where, according to residents, Russian soldiers were based in the village of Vilkhivka, Ukraine, near Kharkiv on May 13.
Ukraine war in photos: In Kharkiv, a difficult ‘win’ for Ukrainians
Kharkiv has been hit hard, and the return home is difficult.
It’s a significant victory for the Ukrainian resistance: Russian forces have been driven out of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, and — until the last few days — a crucial target of the Russian invasion. Following on the retreat from towns and small cities surrounding the capital, Kyiv, the news from Kharkiv is another blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Unlike Kyiv, which has been nearly unscathed by the war, and where no Russian troops have set foot, Kharkiv has been hit hard. In this curation of photos, one gets an idea of how difficult it may be to return home — or, for those who never left, how hard it will be to refashion anything like a normal life.
We also see examples of the detritus of the Russian assault: damaged power lines, unexploded rockets, the gash left in the side of an apartment, the gymnasium where Russian forces had been. And, on the dusty floor of a home hit by shellfire, an old book of postcards. Look carefully, and you can see the title: “Greetings from Kyiv.”
Communal workers repair power lines cut by shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Sunday. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
A man walks past unexploded Grad rockets in front of the regional government headquarters in the center of Kharkiv on Sunday. (Aziz Karimov/SOPA Images/Getty images)
A man looks out of his apartment, which was damaged by shelling, in northern Kharkiv on Sunday. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
A Ukrainian policeman stands inside a school gym, where, according to residents, Russian soldiers were based in the village of Vilkhivka, Ukraine, near Kharkiv on May 13. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
A picture book of Kyiv sits atop debris in the ruins of the regional administration building in Kharkiv on May 14. (John Moore/Getty Images)
A local resident stands among debris in his heavily damaged house in Mala Rogan, Ukraine, on Sunday. (Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images)
A Ukrainian soldier removes a homemade IED for repositioning to a more front-line position on Sunday in Kharkiv. (John Moore/Getty Images)
A local resident scavenges pieces of aluminum from a destroyed Russian tank on Monday in Biskvitne, Ukraine, to the east of Kharkiv. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Local resident Elena, 58, returns to her shell-damaged home, more than two months after evacuating, on Sunday in Kharkiv. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Local resident Oleksandr, 82, receives humanitarian aid from the Ukrainian federal government on May 14 in Kharkiv. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Citizens sit in front of their residential building in the Saltivka district of Kharkiv on May 13. (Aziz Karimov/SOPA Images/Getty Images)
A man carries grocery bags near a residential building in the Saltivka district of Kharkiv on May 13. (Aziz Karimov/SOPA Images/Getty images)
Tom Nagorski is the global editor at Grid, where he oversees our coverage of global security, U.S.-China relations, migration trends, global economics and U.S. foreign policy.