Ukrainians Remain Determined, Unbowed, See Opportunities To Beat Russians

Ukrainians remain determined and unbowed because they understand that a Russian victory means extinction including mass murder, rape and exile. 

As a result, they continue to fight, exacting a terrible toll in Russian casualties which has, so far, prevented the Russians from taking more of their country, even as the Ukrainians see opportunities to further degrade Russian military capabilities. JL 

Carlotta Gall reports in the New York Times:

The suffering caused by Russia’s invasion has hardened attitudes in Kharkiv. Part of the province lived under a brutal seven-month occupation in 2022, and the bombardment continues. “Each missile they shoot at us just fuels our fury,” said the chief police investigator for Kharkiv who has opened thousands of criminal cases against Russia for rape, torture and arbitrary killings, as well as deaths and loss of property from bombardment. Pro-democracy changes introduced several years ago that brought more accountability to local government have helped to bolster Ukraine’s resilience.

The suffering caused by Russia’s invasion has hardened attitudes in Kharkiv. Part of the province lived under a brutal seven-month occupation in 2022, and the bombardment continues. This month, two families, three children among them, were burned alive in their homes when missiles struck a fuel depot, setting an adjoining line of houses ablaze.

“Each missile they shoot at us just fuels our fury,” said the chief police investigator for Kharkiv Province, Serhii Bolvinov, who has opened thousands of criminal cases against Russia for rape, torture and arbitrary killings, as well as deaths and loss of property from bombardment.

“Each of us has hate for Russians at a maximum level,” he said. “And it’s hard to understand when it will start declining. Because for now, it’s only growing.”

Anatolii Kozyr, 72, played a video on his cellphone of his farm and home, 80 miles east of Kharkiv, which were destroyed by Russian strikes a month ago. “All my life I was gathering and organizing, and in one moment everything was gone,” he said. He lost 3,000 tons of grain, 1,000 pigs, a workshop and farm machinery, he said. “Nothing was left.”

 

The Russians now stand less than two miles from his village, and he sees little hope of being able to return. “They are advancing,” he said.Dr. Maryna Prokopenko, 28, a surgeon at Kharkiv Regional Hospital, calms her nerves by working and, in her spare time, boxing to vent her anger.She fled to Poland at the beginning of the war but, missing home, returned to Kharkiv after a month. An ear, nose and throat specialist, she spends most of her time patching up wounded civilians.

 

“We try to work a lot because it really is a distraction,” she said. “I have work, and I am calm and strong.”Like many Ukrainians, she yearns for the war to stop. “When I see all these wounds and destroyed bodies, and so many physical disabilities, it is awful,” she said. “I want this war to end.”

 

But when asked about giving up territory in a peace treaty, or ceding Kharkiv to Russian control, she rejected the prospect outright. Two neighbors in their 80s, Raisa and Svitlana, strolling through the snow in Kharkiv, were among the pessimists.They criticized the leaders who brought war upon them. “I hope they lose their ambition and negotiate,” Svitlana said, adding that President Volodymyr Zelensky would have to cede ground. “He cannot win.” The women gave only their first names to avoid recriminations.

 

Pro-democracy changes introduced several years ago that brought more accountability to local government have helped to bolster Ukraine’s resilience, some analysts have said. Ukraine also has plenty of natural leaders in addition to its military commanders and politicians.

 

One of Kharkiv’s most beloved characters is Serhii Zhadan, a 50-year-old punk rocker, poet, novelist and lyricist who tours the country entertaining fans and supporting soldiers on the front lines. He played a raucous set in Kharkiv last Sunday, paying tribute at one point to a group of leather-clad bikers who have been fixing and delivering motorbikes for the troops.

 

Mr. Zhadan has written searing verse over the 10 years of war, including a poignant poem on the loss of a childhood friend from his home province of Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine. And he has immortalized in song Kharkiv’s children, who lived for weeks in the subway at the beginning of the war.