It was approached by Russian forces shortly after the invasion began last Thursday, but Ukrainian forces kept the Russians at bay for three days.
Then, on Sunday, Russian troops invaded the city, according to the region’s governor, Oleh Synehubov.
What happened next offers clues to the fierce resistance Russian soldiers are encountering in Ukraine’s cities and towns — and why they haven’t progressed as quickly as experts initially feared.
“Ukraine’s armed forces are taking out the enemy,” Synehubov reassured the residents of Kharkov that day.
Videos uploaded to social media provide rare glimpses of the clashes on the city streets.
A series of videos uploaded to social media shows an attempt by a Russian unit to advance towards a key airport and weapons factory in northeast Kharkov. The airport, at the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company, is small — just a single runway — but could be a useful beachhead for the Russians.
DailyExpertNews has located and verified the authenticity of the videos.
The first video, shot by a resident, shows a convoy of Russian troops encircling military vehicles, crawling along a roadway that ends at the airport.
“There are two [military vehicles] as far as I can tell,” someone in the video says. “A third crawl through with infantry with automatic weapons, getting ready.”
Suddenly, gunshots are heard and seen. A Russian soldier quickly kneels and fires a shoulder-launched missile toward the area where the gunfire appears to be coming from.
A second video, shot after the gunfight, shows the military vehicles reversing in an apparent retreat. The Russian troops can be seen crouching behind their vehicles.
A Reuters journalist who went to the site after the gunfight captured a video showing one of the Russian military convoy’s vehicles abandoned and a significant amount of blood staining the snow on the ground nearby.
The Reuters journalist spoke to a resident identified as Yevgeniy, who told them that at least one Russian soldier had been killed there.
“After we kill this one, the others run away,” Yevgeniy told Reuters, pointing to a patch of blood in the snow. He tells the journalist that there were between 12 and 15 people in the group.
“They will not take Kharkov,” he insists. “They walked back to where they came from. They don’t have good navigation you see. Nothing works for them. They came and hid behind the houses.’
The troops’ attempts to withdraw appear to have been halted by another attack. A convoy of vehicles — of the same type as those in the previous clips — is set on fire in another video.
“This is how we greet the Russian army,” someone is heard shouting in the video. “Come here and blindfold him. And this will happen to anyone who comes to us here on Kharkov soil.’
It is not possible to say definitively that the Russian trucks seen on fire are the same as the ones filmed trying to reach the airport, but they are in the same location, are of the same type and bear the same markings.
Another video apparently shot later at the site of the abandoned military convoy – the vehicles are no longer on fire – shows Ukrainian troops intervening.
Amid the firefight, a Ukrainian soldier steps out of the wall and sees a shoulder-launched missile fire.
Looking at the video, Ret. General Mark Hertling, national security and military analyst for DailyExpertNews, said the Ukrainian unit was equipped with rocket-propelled grenades.
“You see that force, that little team there of about 10 men, the man furthest from us is firing rocket-propelled grenades repeatedly, he’s fired about five, he’s handing the launcher to another man, they’re on it. reload and he’s ready to fire again,” he said.
“And everyone else, look at the cool, calm, controlled approach of these soldiers under fire, they’re not scared, they’re ready to kick back,” he added.
Later, another video shows Ukrainian troops around the convoy, who appear to be snooping through the abandoned vehicles. There is sporadic gunfire and some Ukrainian troops move along a wall in the background.
“Slava Ukraini,” someone says in the video (“glory to Ukraine”).
Quick answer
But on Monday, Russian troops returned to the northeastern suburbs of Kharkov and renewed their attack on the city.
Multiple videos on social media, located by DailyExpertNews, show rockets exploding close together in a residential area of the Saltivka neighborhood, close to a supermarket. One showed a rocket booster stuck in the street as civilians watched.
“It is even more hellish in Kharkiv today than yesterday,” Ukrainian Attorney General Iryna Venediktova said on Facebook.
Kharkiv City Council said a female civilian was killed in the latest shelling and 31 people – 15 military personnel and 16 civilians – were injured.
In recent days, the city council has recorded seven deaths – two military personnel and five civilians – and 44 injured, including 20 military personnel.
“Kharkiv has just been subjected to massive Grad shelling! Dozens of victims,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, said Monday, describing the situation there as “a nightmare”.
Russia insists it is not targeting civilians.
