Thoughts During Missile Strikes
Here's why Ukraine's Kharkiv is a 'diorama of resilience'
KHARKIV, UKRAINE,30 miles to Russia—Amid increased warnings that Moscow is planning something new and horrible, here are highlights from my past week in Kharkiv, one with frequent Russian missile strikes, sometimes before the alarms could sound.
In London, President Zelenskiy laid out a bold new political theory: a radical but real belief that the people can take control of their democracies from corrupt elites, a belief that we the people don’t have to live as pawns in perpetual fear.
But in the little heads of bureaucrats in Washington and Brussels, there are no alarm bells ringing. They wait and watch and wear lapel pins and pretend to stop this. But what are they really doing?
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As Russians continue to pound, Kharkiv is a diorama of resilience
by Joe Lindsley
This story is excerpted from my weekly column in Polish media TVPWorld. You can read the full story here.
Kharkiv, Ukraine — here, thirty miles from Russia it’s been a roller-coaster week. Sunday morning, February 5 two Russian missiles hit the city center before the air-raid alarm could sound. Local friends told me that the best alarm in such a circumstance is a dog: Pups bark about a minute before impact.
Then on Tuesday night, six Russian rockets hit within 10 minutes. And on Thursday, around 4 am, hours before Russia assaulted all of Ukraine, Moscow sent 9 missiles to Kharkiv, turning the night into spectacular orange daylight and shaking the city.
Somehow, I slept through that 4 am attack. I’d stayed awake until 3 am, working and monitoring news of Iranian drones targeting Kyiv. When the all-clear sounded, I, exhausted, put on my noise-canceling headphones and fell asleep to the sounds of Chopin—lovely sounds that prevented me from hearing the entire city shake around me.
From 10pm Thursday night until midday Friday, Russia unleashed its regular--weekly or fortnightly—attack on Ukrainian infrastructure and cities.
At 4am, nine rockets rained hell upon Kharkiv—followed by hours of Iranian drones and cruise missiles assaulting all of Ukraine.
Diorama of Resilience
On Sunday, some local friends brought me to one of the scenes of destruction—a wild scene. A straight street, sloped down, lined with beautiful residential buildings, 6-8 stories, still beautiful in the smoldering apocalyptic smoke.
Before me, were two rows of buildings, on either side of the street, each like a doll's house, facades ripped off, almost all windows gone. I saw a couple standing on their stone balcony—looking dazed. Moments before had been a lazy Sunday morning. Now everything was ripped apart, people’s lives and rooms exposed to the elements and the world.
In other buildings and rooms, I saw people already installing plywood to cover the gaps in the walls.
It was a diorama of resilience.
In the street, firetrucks, rescue workers, and an old woman holding her dog, in a blanket, while a firefighter pet it. Ahead, I saw the missile crater. The world Central Kitchen was already there, with a tent, serving up hot coffee, tea, and soup to residents and rescuers alike.
“We’re getting seriously [expletive] hit,” I texted a friend in Lviv Tuesday night. I was in a quasi-shelter in my hotel along with United Nations people.
“What does this give you, lad?” my friend replied. In other words: Why did I choose to stick around here, not just in Ukraine but in Kharkiv, especially amid growing reports that Russia is planning some new offensive?
I thought about it, as the alarms wailed, and then replied:
“Why am I here in Kharkiv? It gives me purpose and focus. When missiles are falling down around me, I am more honest and determined. It gives me no excuse not to work hard. Lives are at stake. And it gives me the story, the means to share the story, and it lets me share the stories of those who would be otherwise forgotten.
You can read the rest of the story at TVP World.
Here’s the audio version, from my daily report on Chicago’s WGN Radio, of what I saw on that street ripped apart by the Russian missile:
Stories, Sounds, and Facts of War: Every weekday, Ukrainian Freedom News’s Joe Lindsley, an American in Ukraine since the pandemic started, gives a live war report on Chicago’s WGN Radio. You can listen and watch below. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel to catch all our stories.
Raw thoughts during Saturday night Russian strike on Kharkiv, after a week of many attacks:
Kharkiv, Saturday night, as missiles hit: After a week of many Russian strikes—where do we begin? Sunday, before an alarm could sound, two missiles; a massive assault a couple blocks from me Tuesday night, I think 6 missiles in 10 minutes; and then Friday at 4am -- a horrifying barrage of 9 Russian missiles that turned night into day ... and then Saturday night, tonight, I met with friends at a Ukrainian restaurant of deepest soulful borsch and fermented veg and smoked meats and then had a nightcap at my native embassy, a good Irish pub, the sort of place in its good cheer that seems apocalypse-proof tho a rocket could destroy it,
and then I walked home in the total blackout dark, looking at the same night sky I'd seen from the desolate Outer Banks in this city that before the war was the size of Chicago and brightness of New York, and I felt a little bit of peace, and I arrived in my hotel moments before curfew, and I sat down with some tea to read and rest at last after that long week of work and sleepless war nights — and then f*cking thud, that g-d awful noise, the sound of evil, sh*tty pieces of Moscow metal filled with explosives sent maniacally on the territory of this county where people refuse to be slaves.
I put down the Kindle, grabbed my go-bag—and then thud. again that g-d awful f-cking noise, again and again like groundhog day.
Only then did the alarm sound.
But in the little heads of bureaucrats in Washington and Brussels, there are no alarm bells ringing. They wait and watch and wear lapel pins and pretend to stop this. But what are they really doing?
but then the all-clear sounded and I played some Chet Baker tunes, sent by a friend, and I started to sleep and then --
Povitryna treyvoha - air-alarm. In my mind, I hear the repeat of that g-d awful thud. but now it's only silence and total darkness.
You can listen to the earlier thud here (16 seconds).
From The Spectator—the world’s oldest magazine, formerly edited by Boris Johnson:
Zelensky touches off a revolution in London
We don’t have to live in Chinese balloon-land, forever terrorized.
by Joe Lindsley
Speaking in London's Palace of Westminster, President Zelenskiy defined a new political theory for the free world, based on confidence democracy over timid bureaucracy: We do not need to accept a world equilibrium that includes tyranny.
Zelensky was not a part of Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution. But he now articulates and represents the spirit of that Revolution: a radical but real belief that the people can take control of their democracies from corrupt elites, a belief that we the people don’t have to live as pawns in perpetual fear. …
Read the full story here, at The Spectator. If you enter your email address, you can read for free.
More videos:
More Than 100 Russian Missiles and Iranian Drones Attack Ukraine in 12 Hour Period
Kharkiv: A Brave City Under the Russian Gun
US Support for Ukraine: Not What It Seems
ABOUT US: Ukrainian Freedom News: The wild story—so far—of free people standing for democracy, faith, dignity
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American journalist Joe Lindsley, in Ukraine since 2020, leads the Ukrainian Freedom News team of Ukrainians and foreigners on a mission to share real talk and real life in war-time with the world. Every weekday since late February 2022, he has reported live from Ukraine on Chicago’s WGN Radio with host Bob Sirott. You can listen to all episodes at UkrainianFreedomNews.com or via our YouTube channel.
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