In the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv have been since the beginning of the Russian attacks, according to Ukrainian information almost 1180 multi-storey residential buildings were destroyed. In addition, more than 50 kindergartens, almost 70 schools and 15 hospitals destroyed said Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov on Monday, according to the Unian agency. Within 24 hours, Russian troops shelled Kharkiv almost 60 times with artillery and mortars. The information cannot be independently verified.

Around 30 percent of the population had left the city, said Terekhov. But some people have returned. Before the start of the war, Kharkiv had around 1.5 million inhabitants and is the second largest city in Ukraine after Kyiv. Since the Russian invasion four and a half weeks ago, the city has been attacked from the air and with artillery.

the According to Terekhov, residents of bombed-out houses are housed in remaining schools, kindergartens, basements and subway stations. Despite the attacks, supermarkets in Kharkiv are still open and all the necessary groceries are available. Kharkiv is also being supplied with humanitarian aid from other cities. A shipment of drugs worth $880,000 had also arrived from the United States.

“Kharkiv is a Russian-speaking city,” the newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda quoted Terekhov as saying. At the beginning of the war, practically every fourth resident had relatives or acquaintances in Russia. Many also had friends in Russia. “People could never have imagined in their worst dreams that Russia would attack Ukraine and Kharkiv,” Terekhov said.