{"id":6439,"date":"2022-01-28T21:22:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T21:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/no-one-is-going-to-hand-over-ukraine-a-local-journalist-reports-on-the-hopes-and-fears-of-kharkiv-residents-amid-the-looming-threat-of-a-russian-invasion.html"},"modified":"2022-01-28T21:22:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T21:22:58","slug":"no-one-is-going-to-hand-over-ukraine-a-local-journalist-reports-on-the-hopes-and-fears-of-kharkiv-residents-amid-the-looming-threat-of-a-russian-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/no-one-is-going-to-hand-over-ukraine-a-local-journalist-reports-on-the-hopes-and-fears-of-kharkiv-residents-amid-the-looming-threat-of-a-russian-invasion.html","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No one is going to hand over Ukraine\u2019 A local journalist reports on the hopes and fears of Kharkiv residents amid the looming threat of a Russian invasion"},"content":{"rendered":"
Military exercises in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine, December 20, 2021. Ukrainian Armed Forces \/ Reuters \/ Scanpix \/ LETA<\/figure>\n

The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv is located just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border with Russia. In 2014, it was among the main centers of a bitter standoff between supporters and opponents of the Maidan Revolution. Eight years later \u2014 against the backdrop of a Russian troop buildup that has provoked international fears of a military escalation \u2014 Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky speculated that Moscow may try to \u201coccupy\u201d Kharkiv. In a dispatch from the city, local journalist Olga Antonova reports on how Kharkiv\u2019s inhabitants are responding to the prospect of an all-out war with Russia.<\/p>\n

Constitution Square is the center of Kharkiv. Throngs of people emerge from the overcrowded subway, spreading out towards offices and shopping centers. At one of the many coffee shops, I strike up a conversation with the barista. Olga is 20 years old, a part-time student at Karazin University, who is working to pay for her studies. As she fiddles with the coffee machine, I ask her what she thinks about the possibility of Russian troops invading Kharkiv. Olga shrugs in response: \u201cI don\u2019t know why everyone is panicking. I was 12 years old when all of this started, I was still in grade school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olga remembers 2014. Back then, there were regular clashes in Kharkiv between Euromaidan supporters and pro-Russian forces. Shortly thereafter, the city suffered a series of terrorist attacks, one of which killed nine people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In March 2014, supporters of the so-called \u201cKharkiv People\u2019s Republic\u201d even managed to seize the regional administration building for a short period of time. \u201cAt first it was scary, my school [was] right next to the administration, we all saw it: the rallies, how they stormed the administration, how they hung the Russian flag on it, how the streets were blocked. The military parked their vehicles in our schoolyard,\u201d Olga recalls. \u201cAnd then we got used to it. Eight years have gone by, Russia hasn\u2019t gone anywhere, but Kharkiv is still Ukraine. I hope it stays that way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Olga says if Russia invades she \u201cdefinitely won\u2019t run.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll send my mom and grandmother somewhere \u2014 to Kyiv, probably, my friends there will take them in. But I myself won\u2019t leave. If I need to, I\u2019ll go fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Olga immediately underscores that she doesn\u2019t believe there will be a war with Russia \u2014 after all, Putin \u201cisn\u2019t a total fool, he understands that no one is going to hand over Ukraine to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go-bags and cigarettes<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Tensions around Ukraine have been escalating since the fall of 2021, when Western media reported that Russian military forces were being pulled to the border. The most recent transfer of Russian troops took place in late January, against the backdrop of joint drills with the Belarusian military. According to the U.S. State Department, there are now around 100,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russian officials maintain that there will be no invasion. However, United Russia has already formally asked Vladimir Putin to start supplying weapons to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk \u201cpeople\u2019s republics.\u201d And NATO countries have sent additional forces to Eastern Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Washington Post on January 20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speculated that in the event of an invasion Kharkiv \u201ccould be occupied\u201d by Russia \u2014 under the pretext of protecting the Russian-speaking population. This, he said, would \u201cbe the beginning of a large-scale war.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Russia decides to enhance their escalation, of course they are going to do this on those territories where historically there are people who used to have family links to Russia. Kharkiv, which is under Ukraine government control, could be occupied. Russia needs a pretext: They will say that they are protecting the Russian-speaking population. After the occupation and the annexation of Crimea, we understand that this is feasible and may happen. But I don\u2019t know what they are going to do because these are big cities. Kharkiv has over 1 million citizens. It\u2019s not going to be just an occupation; it\u2019s going to be the beginning of a large-scale war,\u201d Zelensky said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was followed by reassuring statements from government and security officials: for example, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service\u2019s Kharkiv branch stated that the city is prepared to repel any threat, \u201clike never before in the last eight years.\u201d After his Washington Post interview came out, Zelensky himself hastened to add that Russia wouldn\u2019t be able to occupy Kharkiv.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, his statement still provoked a low-level panic in the city. At one point, sugar and cereal stocks had noticeably thinned out on store shelves. Plans to leave the city became a point of discussion on social networks: those without cars of their own connected with car owners via special Facebook groups. Some wrote that they were already packing \u201cgo-bags\u201d \u2014 many Kharkiv residents have had these ready since 2014 (go-bags usually contain the essentials: documents, medications, comfortable clothes, a day or two worth of groceries, cigarettes, and cash).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Yulia