In the face of escalating aggression from Russia, Kharkiv, located merely 30 kilometers from the Russian border, remains one of the most precarious positions in Ukraine.
The situation in Kharkiv was particularly dire two days ago, when the city endured three separate shelling incidents within a 24-hour period. Ukrainian missile defense forces in the area reported that they observed ballistic missiles being launched from Russian territory. However, the rapidity of these attacks, taking less than a minute from launch to impact, rendered their response capabilities and existing armaments largely ineffective.
One Ukrainian serviceman near Kharkiv could only report, "I see flashes and hear outgoing booms!" Another soldier expressed a profound sense of helplessness, acknowledging the inevitability of missile impacts: “I understood they would fly and hit people, and that I couldn’t do anything to prevent it from happening,” he said, as quoted by The Washington Post.
Kharkiv's vulnerability is further exacerbated by the timing of attack sirens, which, as reported, were activated only post-explosion during the attacks on Tuesday. The city, Ukraine's second-largest with a population exceeding 1.4 million before the Russian invasion in February 2022, has been a regular target for Russian artillery, leading to significant civilian casualties.
One proposed countermeasure is the use of US-supplied HIMARS missile launchers to target missile sites in Russia. However, Washington's restrictions on their use for such offensive operations leave this option off the table, as highlighted by a source in the report.
Source: The Washington Post, PAP