Waking up to Russian Missiles ...
Stories of the Fierce and Wounded in a Kharkiv Café
KHARKIV, 30 miles from Russia—Yesterday, 5 Feb, good ol' Sunday morning, a Russian missile woke me up here in Kharkiv. I thought I was dreaming, or maybe it was a garbage truck, so I kept my eyes closed, until some seconds later—boom—another missile hit. It was not a dream.
So it's kinda busy here and I'm posting only now this conversation from last week, from day 343, of my daily Ukraine report on WGN Radio.
The conversations below was recorded on a calm day here—when words on my paper coffeecup—"There is something in me that does not die"—stirred me into some strange reality. With Ukrainian and American friends, I visited a liberated Ukrainian village, I listened to the stories of life under Russian occupation, and I entered into 10-story buildings mostly destroyed by Russian bombs.
Here are glimpses into life in Kharkiv, after liberation and awaiting something horrible.
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.
Survival Amid the Snowy Ruins
KHARKIV, 30 miles from Russia: Last time I reported live from Kharkiv's North Saltvika, it was terrifying, with active shelling all around. This time, amid the snowy ruins, people have returned to rebuild whatever is salvageable. With our volunteer team we also visited a liberated Ukrainian village and the horrifying scene of a civilian evacuation column destroyed by a Russian tank.
Stories of the Fierce and Wounded in a Kharkiv Café
by Joe Lindsley
KHARKIV, 30 miles from Russia: Under air-raid alarm at a hidden club in this darkened city, Ukrainians in their late teens and early 20s joined battled-hardened volunteers and medics to raise money for the victory effort—by auctioning off Russian "presents," pieces of rockets and abandoned or captured equipment.
Although many spoke Russian, the city’s street musicians led the crowd singing the folk song, “Chervona Ruta" (named after a popular Rhododendron plant) in Ukrainian.
“They’re reclaiming their culture,” an experienced U.S. veteran, proud of these Ukrainians, said to me (see video of this music here or by scrolling below).
Amid the singing, laughter, and conversation, in Ukrainian, Russian, and English, I could tell who in the club was receiving bad news about a wounded or fallen loved one.
By the bar I saw two women sobbing and hugging each other, while a man stared blankly into the distance and another swore.
Then, I too received difficult news. An American in her 20s, a nurse medic, texted to say she had taken shrapnel to her side in Bakhmut [currently the focus of the Russian assault in Donbas]
Soon after, a Ukrainian friend who had been a free-spirited bartender before Russia’s full-scale war, texted me.
“Bad news, unfortunately,” he wrote. An American doctor, in the same group as the American medic, had died in Bakhmut. His name: Peter Robeson Reed, a 34-year-old Marine Corps veteran who had arrived in Ukraine just a few weeks ago.Sadly, we only seem to hear stories of these heroes after they die. A few weeks ago, the international media reported on the deaths and lives of two courageous British humanitarian volunteers, Andrew Bagshaw and Chris Parry.
They died trying to evacuate people from the little town of Soledar, which the Russians, unable to take anything bigger, were intent on capturing.A survivor’s tale
Wanting to hear and share the stories of the living, I spoke to the wounded American nurse, whom I’ll call Sheila. She had recently returned for her third tour in Ukraine.
Every time she went back to the United States, she told me, she felt an urge to come to this place of purpose.
Sheila had been a few feet from Dr. Pete Reed when he died, and from her hospital bed in Dnipro Saturday, she described the scene from Bakhmut, Thursday, February 2.
As happens every day and night, Russian artillery had hit the city. Her team rushed to the scene. They arrived within 10 minutes to find a casualty on the ground.Sheila, the American nurse, was kneeling on the concrete, opening her medical bag, preparing to take care of the wounded person.
Next thing—boom.
All Sheila remembers is floating. She thought, “well, when I land, I will die.”
But she didn’t land. She was already on the ground. Instinctively, she assessed her injuries. Then, she looked around: She saw a detached leg.
The wounded person she’d been attending to was now dead. She saw that her team’s medical van was on fire— a direct hit it seems.
“I should be dead, too,” she thought.
She stood up, and described the next moments “like in a dream,” walking around seeing people lying everywhere.
“We have to go,” shouted a member of her team.
“Where’s Pete?” she asked. Fellow Americans, they had just met a few days ago.
“Pete’s dead.”
In the surviving vehicle, the wounded team raced to another city and then got an ambulance to Dnipro.
“It seems [the Russians] targeted us, waited for the medics to arrive, and hit again. We think there was a drone monitoring us.”
Read the full story here.
Coffee and Rockets: War Appears in Even Small Moments of Peace
KHARKIV, 30 miles from Russia: After a day seeing some horrible destruction, I took an easy morning, walking along a snowy Kharkiv street, listening to American music, during a time with no air-rad alarms. Peace.
I opened the door of a craft coffee shop, and suddenly everything, the music, the world around me disappeared: I saw the holes from shrapnel on the door frame and I recalled how Russian missiles not long ago rained upon this street.
The tired clerk, but still with a smile, handed me my coffeecup: On it, a silhouette of a woman with blood red tears—and these words: «Я в серці, маю те, що не вмирає»: "There is something in my heart that does not die."
Meanwhile, reports that Russia is preparing something wicked and massive increase. And everyone knows that the tanks and modern, long-range weapons are arriving too slowly—or won't be here in time.
Daily Situation Summary: 6 February: Zelensky commented on the possibility of a repeated attack by Russia, Bilohorivka is under the control of the Armed Forces
by PAVLO VITENKO, Ukrainian Freedom News
KHARKIV REGION
On February 5, the troops of the Russian Federation attacked the center of Kharkiv with S-300 missiles. A hit to Kharkiv National University of Urban Economy, as well as residential buildings. Five people were injured.
During the past day, in the Slobozhansk direction, the areas of settlements: Strelecha, Neskuchne, Ternova, Staritsa, Ohirtseve, Budarki and Rublene were subjected to enemy shelling.In the Kupiansk direction, the enemy fired at the areas of Pishchane, Ivanivka, Kucherivka, Kislivka and Kotlyarivka settlements.
During the day, as a result of enemy artillery, mortar and rocket attacks, eight apartment buildings, an infrastructure facility, an office building and three cars were damaged.DNIPROPETROVSK REGION
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the enemy continued to terrorize local residents. On the morning of February 5, the aggressor struck the Synelnykove district - targeting the Velyka Mykhailivka community. the Russians fired from heavy artillery, the shells hit the power line. No victims.
The Russians also shelled the Marhanets community of the Nikopol district with barrel artillery at night. More than 20 enemy shells were fired in the direction of the civilian population. No victims.
Read the full report here.
More Videos:
War Day 345: Singers, Medics, Soldiers Cry ... and Sing—in a café at the edge of the free world
In Kharkiv During an Air-Alarm, Ukrainians Sing 'Chervona Ruta,' While Auctioning Off Russian Loot
War Day 341: How to Survive in the Worst of Times
ABOUT US: Ukrainian Freedom News: The wild story—so far—of free people standing for democracy, faith, dignity
"Joseph Lindsley's reports are enlightening, frightening, heart-wrenchingly and poetically descriptive." —a regular listener to the daily report from Ukraine on Chicago's WGN Radio with Bob Sirott
“I just returned from three months in Ukraine. Not my first time there, and certainly not my last; a powerful experience for me personally, but I must say that JOE’s REPORTING, HIS INSIGHTS, and, OBVIOUSLY, HIS HEART, ARE SPOT-ON.” —Jim, a Telegram follower of Ukrainian Freedom News
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.
Spread the word and join us in sharing the reality of democracy and culture in Ukraine, which Russia is seeking to destroy.
We welcome your financial support via Paypal (to sustain our operations) or U.S. tax-deductible donations (for delivery of supplies and reporting missions) through our friends at Ukrainian Freedom Fund.
Follow us across various social media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or via UkrainianFreedomNews.com.
UKRAINIAN FREEDOM NEWS
Truth to the World | Supplies to Ukraine
Joe Lindsley, Editor-in-chief
Pavlo Vitenko, Chief Reporter
Anton Hutyriak, Associate Editor
Luka Oleschyuk, Video Editor
Jean-Baptiste Besson, Field Editor
Vitalii Gulden, Graphics Editor
Beata Szrom, Operations Director