Kharkiv is struggling under Russian rocket attacks

“THAT IS MY blood,” says Natalya Popova, showing a video she took on January 2nd in her flat in Kharkiv. When a missile hit nearby she grabbed her six-year-old son and put him in the bathtub, covering him in blankets for protection. A second explosion peppered her with shards of glass. They survived, but Ms Popova is sending her son out of the city. A renewed wave of attacks since December has shaken the confidence of this north-eastern Ukrainian city and region, leaving its people angry and dejected.

Before Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022, almost everyone in Kharkiv dismissed the idea that Russia would attack this predominantly Russian-speaking city, 40km south of the border. “Would your brother attack you? No, he would not!” yelled an angry woman your correspondent spoke to in a market at the time. Ten days later Russian troops entered Kharkiv, only to be beaten back by Ukrainian forces. They then spent six months shelling it from the outskirts.