The Fight for Kharkiv

February 24, 2022 – WARNING: This video contains scenes some viewers may find disturbing. Ukraine on Thursday fought Russian forces along practically its entire border with Russia, and there was fierce fighting in the regions of Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odessa and at the Hostomel military airport near Kyiv, an adviser to the presidential office said.

Ukrainian forces engaged Russian military at the ring road around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. A burnt out tank and the body of a dead soldier believed to be Russian were seen after the fighting died down. On Thursday evening the fighting renewed with explosions lighting the sky in the Kharkiv area.

February 25, 2022 – Footage filmed by The Telegraph shows the reality for Ukrainian soldiers on the front line as they come under attack in Kharkiv. “This is a spot where the Russians tried to break through on a ringroad yesterday, they were ambushed by the Ukrainians,” said Roland Oliphant, The Telegraph’s senior foreign correspondent.

“The situation is this: as far as we understand the Russians have stopped on the northern side of the city. They don’t seem to be doing much for now but they’re lobbing shells in towards the Ukrainians and into the northern suburbs. “Our suspicion is they’re going to try and decapitate Kyiv so they don’t have to fight here.”

February 25, 2022 – Sky’s John Sparks is in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine where loud explosions and sirens can be heard from the rooftop of his hotel. Meanwhile Sky’s Mark Austin left his position in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv where sirens rang out across the city.

February 27, 2022 – Russians have been trying to capture Kharkiv for three days. Ukrainian military and territorial defense soldiers are fighting them off valiantly, so the occupational forces began shelling residential buildings and infrastructure. There are civilian casualties. On the fourth day, Russian troops entered the city, only to be destroyed or taken prisoner. Kharkiv’s resistance is growing with each passing day. Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

February 27, 2022 – Scenes from Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, show Ukrainian soldiers fighting on street corners with rocket-propelled grenades. Other videos show an alleged Russian convoy that was stopped by Ukrainian soldiers, tanks driving through residential areas and various missile fragments stuck in ground near residential buildings

February 27, 2022 – Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv endured “heavy fighting” with Russian forces overnight after troops entered and blew up a gas pipeline.

February 28, 2022 – Liza Dymchenko, a 16 year old high school student in Kharkiv, Ukraine, tells America what it is like to live in a bomb shelter, trying to survive the Russian invasion and assault of her homeland.

March 1, 2022 – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were eyewitness accounts of civilians being deliberately targeted during Monday’s attack on the country’s second largest city. Rights groups also said war crimes may have occurred during Russia’s invasion. The International Criminal Court’s is looking to launch its own investigation into the allegations. Russia has previously denied targeting residential areas.

March 24, 2022 – Ukraine’s military claim that in many areas they are now pushing back Russia’s invading forces. The city of Kharkiv is 25 miles from the Russian border. It’s faced relentless Russian missile strikes and shelling. But Ukrainian soldiers are holding out there. Ben Brown in Lviv presents a BBC News at Ten special report from Quentin Sommerville and cameraman Darren Conway.

March 25, 2022 – Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, is only an hour from Russia’s border. When Vladimir Putin launched Russia’s invasion, it was thought that Kharkiv would fall within 48 hours. But the city is resisting, despite a relentless bombardment. Its citizens are paying a heavy price.

April 16, 2022 – Emergency workers rushed to treat injured people in Kharkiv on Saturday following a Russian strike on Ukraine’s second-largest city.

April 18, 2022 – Ukrainian paramedics rescue wounded civilians as shells rained down on the eastern city of Kharkiv. At least five people were killed and a dozen wounded Sunday when apartment blocks were bombarded by Russian forces. A paramedic told people to “stay on the ground” as he refused to leave the side of a terrified woman who had been hit by shrapnel.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of engaging in “deliberate terror” with mortar and artillery strikes on residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv, while Ukrainian forces in the southern city of Mariupol defied a Russian deadline to lay down their arms. Zelenskyy, in a video address late Sunday, said he expects Russia to launch an offensive in the eastern Donbas region “in the near future.”

Russia’s withdrawal of its forces from areas around Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other parts of the north in recent weeks prompted assessments from Western military officials that Russia was reinforcing and redeploying those assets to eastern Ukraine. Capturing the Donbas region, which includes Luhansk and Donetsk, along with the port city of Mariupol to the south, would allow Russia to control a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula, which it seized in 2014.

May 12, 2022 – The Russian army came to the soviet strategy of the WWII (just throwing the bodies at the enemy, not having a plan or equipment). In the Kharkiv region the occupier forces are thrown back to the border leaving hundreds of dead Russians on the battlefields.

May 14, 2022 – Putin loses key men, Russian high ranking officers and elite troops, 11 snipers, captured in the Kharkiv area.

May 14, 2022 – Ukraine has “likely won the battle of Kharkiv”, according to think-tank the Institute for the Study of War. Military analysts say Russia was prevented from encircling Ukraine’s second city – and has now given up on attempts to do so. Since the start of the invasion, capturing it has been a key strategic aim of Russian forces. “There was no shelling in the city for the last five days,” the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, told the BBC. “Now it is calm in Kharkiv and people are gradually coming back to the city.”

May 16, 2022 – Counteroffensive is in progress in the Kharkiv region. The messages about newly freed settlements appear almost daily. Ukrainian forces are advancing North and pushing the enemy closer to a state border. Military explain their success in finding the enemy’s weak spots. The low professionalism of the Russians is the reason too. Russians mainly act head-on and dumb. It is not difficult for the Ukrainian commanders to outsmart them because it appears that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are more experienced and skilled. The Ukrainian military sees their local goal as kicking the enemy behind the state border in the Kharkiv region. They also report the successful pushing of the enemy back to Russian territory. They also are ready to move further — if the Commander in Chief issues such an order.

May 25, 2022 – Since the early days of the war, Kharkiv has been a target of Russian bombardment. Many residents have fled the shattered city. Those that have remained have been fighting to retain a sense of normality. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, has been subjected to near-constant shelling since February. The Russian onslaught was met with surprising resistance; unable to take the city, but still within shelling distance, Russian forces have resorted to causing heavy damage from afar.

‘First, they hit with a mortar. When all the people gathered, the police, the rescuers, they shelled us for the second time, with a multi-rocket attack. Such a system: strike the first time, wait until as many people as possible gather and cover a second time with shelling’, explains a member of the area’s territorial defense. Many residents of Kharkiv now shelter in the city’s metro station – but it’s not a healthy environment. ‘Everyone coughs and sneezes.

My children have been sick four times’, explains Yulia, who has been sheltering in the metro. Though many have fled Kharkiv, those who have remained have rallied to keep morale high. Egor Goroshko volunteers at a community center which provides food and medication to thousands daily, including to the military: ‘The enemy is fed by outdated rations but our warriors eat hot soup’.

June 24, 2022 – Kharkiv is one of the largest cities in Ukraine, the regional center, which is located closest to the Russian border. Northern Saltivka is one of the districts of Kharkiv that became a shield in defense against the enemy who broke through from the north. What happened to Saltivka, what does she look like and who lives there now? See all about it in our documentary.

July 9, 2022 – Mala Rohan is one of the villages in the suburbs of Kharkiv, it was here in February and March 2022 that the fiercest battles for the city from the eastern direction took place. Tragic and funny moments of the realities of modern life and recent Ukrainian history in another documentary film of the Khashchi project.

July 31, 2022 – Eastern front. War in Ukraine.

August 1, 2022 – The 130th Kyiv Territorial Defense Battalion • Defenders of Kyiv, Bucha, Irpin, Kharkiv. I am reporter Robert Kowalski, accompanied by cameraman Roman Buczko from Lviv. A couple of months ago, on May 29, we went on reconnaissance with scouts of the 130th Kyiv Territorial Defense Battalion to the Ukrainian-Russian border.

That day, May 29, was the same day President Zelenskyi visited Kharkiv. At the time, none of us knew about President Zelenskyi’s visit, but maybe the Russians sensed something, because they fired a lot of missiles that day, more often than on previous days, toward the northeastern part of the city, and the border areas. The fire was irregular, but frequent.

There were five soldiers in the scouting team. Lock, Cap and Bug were professional rugby players. Lock played on the Ukrainian national team and in many European leagues, also in Poland, for 10 years. Whitey is a parachutist and a great marathoner, and Antonio is a young engineer, a security specialist. There is also Max, a physician from the Medical Company, in civilian life a veterinary surgeon from Kyiv.

The soldiers of 130th Battalion have a reputation for daring, and for being a bit crazy, but also lucky. They defended Kyiv, they were in Bucha and Irpin. Now they defend Kharkiv and areas close to the Russian border. In the distance we can see a column of smoke. The scouting team commander says, “We’ll check what happened there,” so we set off toward Pytomnyk, a small community in Kharkiv Oblast.

August 2, 2022 – “We understand there’s a war. But we don’t understand why it has started,” said one 10-year-old living underground. Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Heroes of Labor metro station in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was an ordinary subway stop. By late March, the station had become something else for hundreds of Ukrainians: home.

With their families, a smattering of their belongings and their pets — kittens, dogs, birds — these residents of Ukraine’s second-largest city moved their lives underground and set up camp, seeking safety amid Russia’s assault. An up-close look at their wartime reality unfolds in the above excerpt from the new documentary “Ukraine: Life Under Russia’s Attack.”

Filmed during the first three months of the war, the documentary chronicles the experiences of Ukrainians living through the battle for Kharkiv: civilians caught in the shelling; first responders risking their own lives; and so many people, like Vika, trying to survive underground.

August 2, 2022 – A dramatic and intimate look inside the Russian assault on Kharkiv, told by the people living through it. When Russia began its attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in February of 2022, many people expected the city to fall in days. But the Ukrainians refused to surrender. Now, a new FRONTLINE documentary tells the story of the battle for Kharkiv through the experiences of those who stayed in the city, despite the ever-present threat of the war. Filmed during the first three months of the war, the documentary chronicles the experiences of people living through Russia’s attack: the displaced families trying to survive underground; the civilians caught in the fight; and the first responders risking their lives to help others.

“Ukraine: Life Under Russia’s Attack” is a Basement Films production for GBH/FRONTLINE in association with Channel 4. Filmed, produced and directed by Mani Benchelah and Patrick Tombola; produced in Ukraine by Volodymyr Pavlov; directed in London by Teresa Smith. The editor is Agnieszka Liggett. The production manager is Leah Gowns. The executive producers are Ben de Pear, Edward Watts and Cate Blanchett. The executive producer and editor-in-chief for FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

August 18, 2022 – ABC News’ Britt Clennett reports with the latest developments on the war in Ukraine.

August 19, 2022 – Руська Лозова – село в околицях Харкова, левову частку населення села складають етнічні росіяни. За іронією долі село жорстоко постраждало від навали російської армії, а звільнили його на початку травня добровольці спецпідрозділу КРАКЕН, кістяк якого складається з ветеранів Азову. Як живе село що думають про події сьогодення його мешканці, та як етнічні росіяни ставляться до політики сучасної Росії? Про це в заключній серії з нашої поїздки по Слобожанщині.

September 8, 2022 – Think Tank report: Ukraine has retaken 400 square kilometres in eastern parts of the Kharkiv region. The northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has been targeted by missile and air strikes. Ukraine says it is making advances in its counteroffensive against Russian forces. Ukraine opens new front in counteroffensive around its second-largest city Kharkiv.

September 11, 2022 – The Ukrainian state agency in charge of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant says operations at the Russian-occupied facility have been fully stopped as a safety measure. Engineers have shut down the sixth and final reactor amid growing concern at the risk posed by fighting in the region.

This comes as a sweeping Ukrainian counteroffensive has driven Russian forces out of dozens of communities in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv says it has liberated around two thousand square kilometers of its territory in recent days – and the operation is ongoing around cities including Izyum, Balakliya and Kupiansk. Russia says it’s withdrawing some of its forces from the region.

September 11, 2022 – Ukraine has carried out such a swift counteroffensive against Russia it’s taken even their own forces by surprise. Ukrainian troops have recaptured huge areas of territory in the east of the country, some reportedly reaching a settlement almost on the border with Russia. As Russian troops abandon their positions, leaving tanks, ammunition and military hardware behind, Ukrainian flags have been raised in dozens of newly liberated villages and towns.

September 11, 2022 – Ukraine’s army recaptured around “2,000 kilometres of territory” in September, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Saturday, adding that the Russian army was doing the right thing in fleeing the counteroffensive. As Russia’s war on Ukraine reaches a dramatic new phase in the conflict, FRANCE 24 is joined by Peter Zalmayev, Director of the Eurasian Democracy Initiative. Could this be a turning point in the war?

Mr. Zalmayev remains cautious, asserting “it’s too soon to declare victory, it’s too soon to celebrate it. When advances are so rapid, one has to proceed cautiously.” For him, over the next few days, it’s just a question of whether the Ukrainian soldiers will “consolidate their gains or whether they will go further. But already this is being declared as probably the most significant victory in this war after the battle for Kyiv.”

September 12, 2022 – Ukrainian officials say Russian missile and airstrikes on water facilities and a thermal power station have caused widespread outages across its eastern regions around Kharkiv and in Donbas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was attempting to deprive people of heat and light, while Khakiv’s mayor described the strikes as Russian reprisals for Kyiv’s recent territorial gains.

September 12, 2022 – Retired US Army Major Mike Lyons analyzes Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, which led to the recapture of thousands of square kilometers of territory from Russian forces.

September 12, 2022 – Ukraine’s armed forces have recaptured large swaths of territory and are making “significant gains” against Russia’s occupation of the northwest region of Kharkiv, the British defense ministry said in an intelligence briefing Sunday. Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey and Anne Applebaum discuss.

September 13, 2022 – Ukrainian forces reached parts of the Russian border in their lightning offensive that has led to the firing of a top Russian general. It came as the Kremlin on Monday insisted it would still win its war against Ukraine despite the collapse and rout of its army group near Kharkiv.

Kyiv’s troops on Monday reached parts of the north-eastern border that had been occupied since the first day of the war in February. They were also reported to have crossed the Siversky Donets river in Luhansk and Donetsk regions to threaten Russian lines of communication there. Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, vowed that the “special military operation” would continue but refused to answer directly when asked if Putin retained confidence in the military leadership.

“The military operation continues. And it will continue until the goals that were originally set are achieved,” he told journalists on Monday. “The president is in round-the-clock communication with the Minister of Defense and with all military commanders. It cannot be otherwise during the special military operation,” Mr Peskov said.

September 14, 2022 – Ukrainian forces have retaken 6,000 square kilometers of their homeland from Russia. Military analyst Michael Clarke explains what these recent wins tell us about Ukraine’s counteroffensive operation, and what this means for the trajectory of the war.

September 14, 2022 – Residents of recently de-occupied settlements in the Kharkiv region are trying to return to normal life as soon as possible, welcoming Ukrainian army, local government ant social system back. Four thousand square kilometers of liberated territories are already recovering, while 4,000 more are in active phase of post-liberation stabilization processes.

September 14, 2022 – Are all the residents of Balakliya in the Kharkiv region, liberated from the Russian occupation, happy that the city is back under the control of Ukraine? hromadske heard different opinions from people and also found out what kind of torture the Russians used on the local civilians. Watch Mariana Pietsuh’s and Mykhailo Mieshcherinov’s special report.

September 16, 2022 – The speed and efficiency of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeastern region of Kharkiv came as a stunning surprise to the Russian military. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty spoke to some of the Ukrainian soldiers involved, who described their tactics.

September 16, 2022 – Ukraine’s breakthrough counterattack, explained. In the spring and summer of 2022, the war between Ukraine and Russia settled into a stalemate. The first phase of the war had been a rapid invasion that drew new battle lines across Ukraine; this next phase saw those battle lines harden and change very little over a long period of fighting. But in September, that chapter came to an end.

For the first time in several months, Ukraine scored a major victory and won back significant territory from Russia. Ukraine pulled this victory off by taking advantage of a surprising weakness in the Russian army. The Russian army had great difficulty maintaining skilled soldiers, compared to the excellent training and exceptionally effective warfighting resources that the Ukrainian armed forces were receiving from their allies. Reports show that Russia’s army has suffered catastrophic losses of skilled personnel in the war, and was unable to replace those more highly trained forces with large numbers of mercenaries, prisoners, and men over 40.

The Russian army was stretched thin and vulnerable to the multi-pronged attack that Ukraine launched in September. Russia still controls a large amount of territory in southern Ukraine, including two major cities. Ukraine’s victory outside of Kharkiv is the beginning of a new phase in the war — one where, remarkably, Ukraine seems to have a shot at driving out the Russians completely.

September 17, 2022 – The war in Ukraine began with desperate defensive operations by the Ukrainian armed forces and population. Russian forces ended the first days pushing on the Ukrainian capital as the Ukrainians called for anyone capable of holding a rifle to stand up to defend the capital. Just a few weeks ago, the Ukraine war was one of attrition and grinding advances, with Russian attacks in the Donbas and Ukrainian actions in Kherson both running into heavy defensive operations.

Then suddenly the Ukrainians launched their operation in Kharkiv Oblast, and within less than 20 days, the Ukrainians reclaimed more territory than Russian forces had gained in months of bombardment and attrition-driven advances.

Ukrainian mobile units launched exploitation operations and forced Russian formations like the 1st Guards Tank Army to give up its positions at Izium and run away rather than risk encirclement. It’s a stand-up-and-cheer turnaround story, one for the history books. While it’s still an evolving situation and data is thin, it is worth asking three questions. What just happened? How did it happen? What does it mean for the war to come?

September 17, 2022 – Borshchova village on north of Kharkiv towards the Russian border was liberated from the Russian occupiers, but demining is still ongoing there. Therefore, hromadske was able to get only to the outskirts of the village to the house of Viacheslav Turetskyi, who has been living alone in the basement since February 24. Right next to his house, the Russians set up a headquarter and ammunition depot.

When the battles for Borshchova began in September, Viacheslav even regretted that he hadn’t sawed birch trees around the house to make it easier for Ukrainian artillery to aim at the enemy headquarters. Why he did not leave for Russia immediately or later, as the Russians offered him, how he arranged his everyday life and how he realized that liberation was close, see in the report of Mariana Pietsukh.

September 20, 2022 – The city of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region was occupied by Russian troops on February 27, 2022. Due to the city’s proximity to the border, the Russians occupied it almost without fighting. After 6 months of occupation, Ukrainian troops entered Kupiansk on the morning of September 10. The city was liberated by the 92nd Kharkiv Brigade. But unlike the liberated Balakliia and Izium and many other settlements, which, due to the speed of the counter-offensive of the Ukrainian army, found themselves in the rear and finally heard silence, Kupiansk, on the contrary, have appeared on the front line. hromadske visited the city on September 15. At that moment, the left bank of the Oskol river, which separates Kupiansk and Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi train stations, was under the control of Russian forces, and the right bank was under the control of Ukrainian forces.

Because of this, artillery duels, tank battles, Grad rockets, cluster bombs were clearly heard. And all this continuously flew over the heads of the residents of Kupyansk. People hurriedly left the city, some stayed and asked the military for bread. That day 10 people were wounded in the city, two of them were children. In the local hospital, which have worked during the occupation, left 20 employees. Instead of 900 – before the war. In the hospital, which rescues the wounded, there is no electricity, no water, no communication, no special transport to evacuate all patients to a safer place. The situation in Kupiansk that day was catastrophic. On September 16, the day after the hromadske crew was in the city, Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi on the left bank of the Oskol river was liberated by the Kraken unit. But the shelling of the left and right banks haven’t stopped.

September 21, 2022 – Ukrainian soldiers recount their exploits during the counteroffensive that swept Russian forces out of most of the Kharkiv region. They report that many Russian soldiers seemed completely unprepared and fled immediately.

September 29, 2022 – Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on Modern Warfare continues with the aftermath of the first phase of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Previously we talked about the build-up to the new stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War, how Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine continued, and covered events between February 24th and April 7th, as we saw how Ukraine managed to win the first phase of the war.

This set up the second phase of the war – battle of Donbas. In the previous video we covered the events of April of 2022 including the sinking of the rocket cruiser Moskva, and how the conflict turned into the war of attrition in May and continued with Russia’s best month in June. In the video dedicated to July – the 5th month of the war, we talked about the arrival of the HIMARS systems which strengthened Ukrainian positions and changed the war.

This video will focus on the events of August, as we will see how Russian logistics and manpower problems were worsened by the HIMARS strikes, the risk and intrigue around the Zaporizhia (Enerhodar) Nuclear Powerplant, and the long expected beginning of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kherson.

This video will continue discussion of the Kherson counteroffensive in the first two weeks of September and will show how the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast – Balakliya-Izium counter-offensive succeeded, pushing the Russians across the Oskil River and opening the way to north Luhansk and the important cities of Lyman and Svatove.

October 9, 2022 – The Russian 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade is a military formation of the 14th Army Corps, part of the Northern Military District, based at Pechenga, Murmansk Oblast of the Russian Federation. The brigade was formed from the 131st Motor Rifle Division in 1997, and with the 80th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, was one of the two Russian Arctic warfare brigades.

In 2014, one battalion tactical group of the 200th Brigade was deployed to Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine and participated in the War in Donbas before returning to its home base in Pechenga, Murmansk Oblast, Russia.

On February 24, 2022, the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two battalion tactical groups of the 200th Brigade participated in the fighting near the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Sumy. These two units of the 200th Brigade were destroyed by the Ukrainian army on that first day of the Russian invasion. Interrogations of Russian prisoners of war verified that the brigade suffered heavy casualties and became combat ineffective in the fight for Kharkiv.

Chapters:
0:00 – Intro
0:40 – 2014 Incursion
1:43 – Pre-Invasion Deployment
3:32 – The Invasion

November 8, 2022 – The Ukrainian army released footage documenting the liberation of cities in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian soldiers freed swathes of territory from Russian occupation during the Kupiansk offensive operation.

Soldiers freed the left bank of Kupyansk, Podola, Kupyansk-Vuzlovy, Kivsharivka, Novoosynovka, Hlushkivka and Kolisnikivka from Russian occupiers. Kharkiv offensive units successfully crossed the Oskil River, which allowed Ukrainian forces to take out the enemy from the left bank of the city and create a bridgehead for adjacent units. The offensive of the Ukrainian army continues successfully on the left bank of Oskol.

November 11, 2022 – In Ukraine, 31-year-old female sniper Evgenia Emerald tells Newsy’s Jason Bellini the story of the best and worst day of her life. Both happened on the front.

November 14, 2022 – A video has appeared online that claims to show a Ukrainian HIMARS strike on a Russian 40 carriage military train carrying Russian troops and essential ammunition. Earlier this year, on July 30, 2022, the Ukrainian army claimed the HIMARS strike on the Russian train at the Brylivka railway station on the railway line that used to connect Kherson with Dzhankoi in Crimea. However, after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the trains only run as far as Vadim, close to the border with Crimea. There is infrequent passenger traffic. The settlement of Brylivka is located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southeast of Kherson and 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of the Black Sea coast and has access to Highway M17 which runs northwest to Kherson and southeast to the border with Crimea.

Russia will continue to retreat while Ukraine will continue to advance

November 28, 2022 – Four months ago the Russian military was still advancing in the Donbas region. The Ukrainian military set out to halt their advance, protect the city of Kharkiv, retake Izium, and liberate the city of Kherson. Ukraine has achieved all of its realistic military objectives prior to the arrival of winter.

November 28, 2022 – Ukrainian volunteers discovered about 20 bodies of dead Russian soldiers near the village of Dovhenke in the Kharkiv region. After a forensic medical examination, the remains of some Russian soldiers may be offered in exchange for the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.

December 19, 2022 – Hundreds of bodies are waiting to be identified in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, but the process is being slowed because of difficulties with DNA testing. Many of the bodies exhumed have been found in mass graves, left with no name, coffin or body bag, making identification difficult.

Others have been so badly burned in shelling and missile strikes that there is little genetic material left to test. Authorities have been collecting swabs from people who remained living in the region with the hope of finding a match, but forensics teams admit some bodies are so damaged that they will never be named.

December 22, 2022 – After 10 months of conflict, Ukraine is approaching its first Christmas at war. Families across the country are without power because of Russian attacks, and some are missing family members who were killed in the conflict.

Since the war began, the BBC has been following one soldier – Lieutenant Eugene Gromadskyi – as he fights to defend his country at great personal cost. BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville and camera-journalist Darren Conway joined him at an undisclosed location, near Kupyiansk in the country’s east, where fighting continues amid appalling winter conditions.

December 29, 2022 – When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Vladyslava Chernykh, Ukrainian PhD student, volunteered to serve as a combat medic in the Ukrainian armed forces. Vladyslava Chernykh was killed in action yesterday, Wednesday, December 28, 2022. Yes, Vladyslava’s body died, but she is not dead. Ісусе (Jesus), my Lord with the nail torn wounds, changed her world instead.

December 18, 2022 – On February 24, 2022, the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade was destroyed (“wiped out”) by Ukrainian territorial defense militias and mechanized infantry north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Thank you, Saint Javelin. Well done.

January 10, 2023 – German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Kharkiv, Ukraine on Tuesday, becoming the first German Cabinet member to survey the war-torn eastern city. During her visit, she condemned Russia’s attacks on the city, while vowing solidarity and support for Ukrainians. She was accompanied on the trip by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiv, among other officials.

January 11, 2023 – Very important telephone call interceptions in this video. Especially the last one, because it’s about what happened in Makiivka on New Year’s Eve. All Russians need to hear this!

January 12, 2023 – On February 27, 2022, three days after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russian elite special forces entered Kharkiv for the first time and occupied one of the schools. But during the hours-long battle, the reconnaissance team and paratroopers of the occupying army were killed. It was one of the key battles during the defense of the city, and after that, the Russian army never returned to Kharkiv. We tell about that battle in the words of one of the participants – Dmytro Oliinyk from Kharkiv. It was his first combat experience, during which he was wounded and almost lost his leg.

March 13, 2023 – The fight for Kharkiv oblast – As Russia threatens a second capture of liberated Kupiansk, Ukraine, CNN’s Melissa Bell talks to Ukrainian residents choosing to stay in their homes despite constant shelling.

September 1, 2023 – Ukrainian troops gave CBS News a rare look at their use of controversial U.S.-supplied cluster munitions to hold Russian forces at bay. CBS News foreign correspondent Debora Patta reports from Kharkiv, Ukraine.