The Village Shows The Effects Of The Battle For Control

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Ukraine says its forces have recaptured villages from Russian troops north and north-east of Kharkiv, pushing them back towards the border. The continuing offensive could signal a shift in the war’s momentum and jeopardise Russia’s main advance further south. BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville, and cameraman Darren Conway, have been with Ukrainian forces as they advance.

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The village of Ruska Lozova stands at the centre of the turn in Ukraine’s response to Russian aggression.

It was recently liberated in a co-ordinated effort led by senior military commanders. Ukrainian troops from territorial defence, the national guard and the regular army are seeking to push the Russians back along a 32-km (20-mile) front line. In the Russian city of Belgorod, just across the border, troops have amassed for a likely counter-offensive.

We drove north from the city of Kharkhiv with Ukrainian forces. Russian shells continued to hit the village.

With no power or water, little food, and neither phone or internet, its residents had been isolated from Ukraine’s second-largest city – just 8km (5 miles) south. From the woods and hills nearby, Russian mortars and artillery shelled Kharkiv relentlessly.

At an army aid station, we met Raisa Opanasivna who has lived in Ruska Lozova for 30 years. The 66-year-old approached the Ukrainian soldiers, weighed down by history, and two large plastic shopping bags.

Under a knitted grey beanie, her gaunt face was weather-beaten, her slim frame stooped. She hadn’t seen this many people for months. Since the beginning of the war, her village had been under Russian occupation.

The Russians had come house to house. “They were checking homes, asking if we have rifles. But I have nothing. I’m alone,” Raisa said.

Ruska Lozova has been torn apart, but more than that, Raisa’s whole world had been upended by Russia’s invasion. In the east, the war is bringing not just a re-examination of people’s relationship to Russia – barely 30km north – but a more personal reassessment of what it means to be a Russian-speaking Ukrainian.

A month ago, the Russians were literally at the gates to Kharkiv. The shelling was constant – and buildings in the street we were staying in were being hit. It became so bad that it was easier to count the hours of silence than the hours of explosions. It felt like being on the edge of an abyss, where one more concerted Russian attack could rupture the city.

In the northern Saltivka neighbourhood, entire apartment blocks had been destroyed. Those who had stayed behind had no electricity or water, and were reduced to cooking food on small fires they had made in their stairwells.

But the spectre of Russian victory, which haunted this city, has gone. Last week I sat in a city centre park, its grass neatly cut, its flower beds blooming, and enjoyed an ice cream sundae from a cafe. The city is still largely empty, but the number of Russian artillery strikes has fallen from dozens daily, to only a handful. Air raid sirens still wail regularly, but Kharkiv no longer feels on the brink of catastrophe.

Ukrainian gains, modest for now, could have strategic implications for Russia’s war in the Donbas to the south-east, threatening the invaders’ supply lines.

As we headed north from Kharkiv with Ukrainian forces to villages and towns that mark the new frontline – the road remained strewn with craters and spent Russian rockets. At the highway’s edges there were destroyed Russian vehicles and burned-out lorries, which had been used to block their initial attack on Kharkiv.

We drove at speed – the commander of a volunteer unit behind the wheel, had his rifle propped in the footwell. “The sides of the road are mined,” he said, as the car lurched through a chicane of roadblocks and tank traps.

Ours was the only car on the road, and we were aware that, on the forested hill in front of us, Russian tanks and artillery were still roaming.

War in the Kharkiv region has changed – it’s now a game of hawk and mouse, where each side’s drones circle constantly, trying to pinpoint the enemy’s tanks and guns, for targeting by artillery.

We passed a Russian Grad rocket launcher lying in a ditch, and a smashed-up military green Lada, with the Russian “Z” insignia painted white on its doors.

“Russia’s secret weapon,” the commander said, to laughter among his men.

Near Ruska Lozova, scorch marks on the road were all that remained of a civilian vehicle destroyed by a Russian shell. The wreck was gone, but its contents were spilled across the road – a pink blanket here, some clothing there. A number of people were killed in the strike.

The village shows the effects of the battle for control. Homes have been wrecked by shelling and some buildings still burn. One house we passed had a shattered roof, while bright red tulips lined up in an orderly fashion at its gate.

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Posted by Scoopearth Team

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