While the liberation of the Russian-held parts of Kharkiv region is being celebrated by Ukrainians across the country, the situation in the city – which was half-encircled by Russian forces until just a week ago – has somehow become more precarious. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported finding bodies of civilians with visible signs of torture as prosecutors gathered more evidence of possible war crimes. Unlike the liberation of Kiev and other northern regions in late March, when the invaders were forced into a chaotic retreat, Russia has almost immediately launched a counterattack and shows no sign of backing away from this corner of the country. On Sunday, for the first time since the start of the war, Russian cruise missile attacks on a power station in Kharkiv led to blackouts across the region. Engineers managed to restore power after four hours, while the factory was on fire. “The Russians want to leave us without light, water and heat,” said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office. There were also initial reports of blackouts in the neighboring regions of Sumy and Poltava as well as Dnipropetrovsk, potentially affecting millions of citizens. A building in the center of Kharkiv was damaged by a Russian strike. Photo: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian Russia appears to be using missiles with increasing frequency, with at least seven strikes in the past 24 hours. Having been pushed almost to the border, the Russians can no longer use cheaper artillery shells to pound Ukrainian positions and terrorize urban populations. The combination of missile attacks and blackouts marks a new phase of the war for the city’s weary population. After Monday’s strikes, electricity and water in the city of Kharkiv were cut off again in most areas. In some, water had not been restored as of Sunday evening. Kharkiv authorities say the strikes targeted civilian areas, suggesting the aim may be to exert psychological pressure on the population. “[It was] mainly a hit in a densely populated residential area. There is no military infrastructure nearby. Information on casualties and damage is being clarified,” Ihor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv, wrote on Telegram. Ukraine’s general staff said Monday it had recaptured more than 20 settlements in the past 24 hours. Videos posted on social media showed soldiers greeting cheering residents as blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags waved. But as the Ukrainians continue their counter-offensive, the focus in the newly liberated territories is turning to the experience of locals forced to live under Russian occupation, amid growing evidence of atrocities similar to those revealed in the northern regions earlier this year. Ukrainian forces have found bodies of civilians who appear to have been tortured, said Inna Sovsun, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, echoing the grim discoveries after Ukrainian forces captured Butsa. The regional prosecutor’s office said liberation troops discovered four corpses of civilians showing “signs of torture” in the village of Zaliznychne. “Three of them were buried near private homes, the other was found on the ground of the asphalt plant,” prosecutors said in a statement on Facebook. “Russian troops committed crimes and tried to hide them,” said Maksym Strelnikov, a council member in Izium, a major base for Moscow’s forces in the Kharkiv region and a gateway to Donbas. “Our investigative work in the liberated cities has just begun,” said Oleksandr Filchakov, the chief war crimes prosecutor for the Kharkiv region. Just as when the Kiev region was seized in March, Russian soldiers in Kharkiv were hunting men who had served in the army, Ukrainian officials told the Guardian. A Ukrainian soldier currently evacuating people from liberated areas said the treatment of civilians was worse the closer they lived to the front line. “The greater the presence of soldiers in an area, the more stories [of abuse] we heard.” When Russian forces entered the villages around Kupiansk in late February, they arrested a local man who had fought in the Donbas, according to his neighbor Luidmyla, a teacher. Luydmila said the Russian arrived with lists of those who served, and the men were taken to their district’s regional headquarters, supposedly for questioning. Liudmyla Bilous said Russian troops took one of her neighbors, who she had not seen since. Photo: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian “We don’t know what happened to him,” Luidmyla said. “His relatives tried to go to the administration to find out what happened to him. But the [Russian] the soldiers did not get the food [they bought] to pass to him – and while he was away, [the Russians] went to his house and stole everything.” Luidmyla said that although villagers resented the occupation, she had not seen any cases of rape or torture. After the Russians set up a base in their community center, someone in the village slashed their tires. The Russian officer then gathered the villagers and tried to get them to co-exist. Anastasia, 23, who is from a small village near Balaklia and gave birth to twins on February 9, spent the first few weeks after the occupation in a barely air-conditioned basement. It was only when the fighting stopped and they saw the Russian checkpoint that they realized they were under occupation. “The worst thing is that my husband used to fight [for Ukraine] in Kharkiv,” said Anastasia. “I just wanted to kill all the Russians I saw.” Villagers had no phone signal, except for a neighbor who bought a Russian sim card, and for much of the year, satellite TV appeared to be jammed, leaving the villages in what he called an “information vacuum.” The Russian soldiers did not live in their village and had limited interaction with the locals, but Anastasia had no doubts about what she had just experienced: “There is no other word for it than occupation.” There was no electricity, gas or water for the first three weeks and after that, the supply was often interrupted. The first month they survived on what they already had. When Russian products finally started appearing, they were very expensive. “It was about ($1) for a diaper,” Anastasia said. “The Russian soldiers did not bring us any humanitarian aid.” Additional reporting by Artem Mazulin
