Flowers and Bombs

On the night of February 26 I heard the whistle of a bomb falling and a very loud explosion nearby. It was the first of 4 drone strikes by Russia on Kharkiv and it hit the main road, Sumska Street, in the city centre. The others hit an apartment on the second floor of a high-rise building, where, fortunately, no-one was staying that night, and two empty cafes, and there were no injuries.

It's amazing how quickly repairs are undertaken and all the shattered glass swept up. Because of this, you can miss where a recent bomb falls as there's already so much bomb damage around Kharkiv. The next morning I walked beside the park on Sumska Street and passed a woman setting up displays of the hugest imaginable artificial roses. I went up to her and asked why; she said, simply, "везна" (spring). At the same time, a little further along the road, men were repairing the crater in the street where the bomb fell and boarding up windows! It was a strange, life-affirming, very Ukrainian experience. 

Little did I know that a couple of nights later (March 1,) there would be the biggest bombing attack since I came to Kharkiv last May. The Russians struck the city centre with at least nine drones, over a period of more than an hour and a half. This followed the awful spectacle of Zelensky being denigrated, patronised and bullied in an orchestrated attack by Trump and Vance, and it felt like Putin rubbing his hands in glee. The first bomb, the loudest I've heard for some time, fell close to Hell's Kitchen. One hit a medical facility in the center of Kharkiv and 56 patients, some of them injured, were evacuated. 

Many other residential and commercial buildings were hit, including my favourite supermarket. 

Amazingly, there were no fatalities but 12 people were injured.

Most windows on the street where Hell's Kitchen is located were blown out or shattered, including places we go to - the corner cafe, the grocery store, the bar. Thank goodness Hell's Kitchen had the foresight to raise funds for shatterproof window covering. 

The house of culture - the bomb exploded behind it.

One of our volunteers had to leave his apartment building with all other occupants because of the damage caused by the explosion - windows blown out and a mess inside. He heard the drone and was quick-thinking enough to duck behind a couch and pull a mattress over him. So he was not injured. It made real the advice we all get, to try to put two walls between ourselves and the outside to add protection from the impact of an explosion.  

As usual, there was an immediate response to repairing the damage: about 75 buildings were damaged and more than a thousand windows were broken in Kharkiv. When I walked to work yesterday morning people were already at work, replacing windows if they could afford it, otherwise covering them with chipboard - men were cutting up the board in the morning and still at it when I returned home in the early evening.  Local media reported: "As of 10:00 a.m., utility workers had closed 349 windows in apartments and 21 in entrances" ('closed' meaning covered).

Buildings damaged or destroyed by bombs are found on practically every street in Kharkiv and they leave terrible, visible scars but, sometimes, it's the small, mundane details, that have real meaning - for example, this small street cafe, windows broken, shattered glass on the pavement, proclaiming that it's still open - "we're working," the painted notices say - a commercial incentive, maybe, but also huge resilience.

Peace seems as far away as ever. But there is always hope and small acts of individual kindness; for example, at the end of baking bread yesterday, Franklin, our volunteer coordinator, saved some dough and made cardamon rolls, which he distributed to people in nearby businesses that had been affected and some of the workers clearing up the damage. I can vouch for them being deliciously comforting!

Also yesterday, I went to another underground concert, a joyous performance by the leading soloist of the Kharkiv Philharmonic, Victoria Gigolaeva, who sang well-known opera arias, Ukrainian romances and folk songs, accompanied on the piano by the concert master of the Kharkiv Philharmonic, Oleksandr Sklyarov. If anything could be the polar opposite of the ugliness of the previous 24 hours, it was this. We were in the front row - afterwards, when we (obviously foreigners) said thank you to the wonderful elderly pianist, he kissed my hand, which was a moment to remember.

As Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, said, "We stand with Ukraine."

To make a donation, please:

Open PayPal and, when asked for email, enter 

sunflower_house@hotmail.co.uk

These are the causes to which I regularly donate - you can specify where you would like your money to go, otherwise I will send it where I think the need is greatest:

Adults For Children supports families displaced by the war.

Hell's Kitchen - we have enough donations for flour to last nearly a year but we need funding for daily, nutritious meals to hospitals due to the withdrawal of USAID.

Franklin, foreign volunteer coordinator, supports local soldiers and medics.

Fabric for camouflage netting/seamstress costs 

If you would like to donate to charities that support stray dogs and cats, please let me know.