Only a hundred residents remain in the town at the centre of Moscow's grinding push
On the 816th day of a war that has become a relentless arithmetic of loss, Russian strikes on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and the border town of Vovchansk wounded and killed civilians — among them children and the elderly — prompting Ukrainian prosecutors to open war crimes investigations. President Zelenskiy, while claiming his forces are holding ground, acknowledged that Ukraine possesses only a fraction of the air defenses it needs, even as a new and contested mobilization law came into force to replenish depleted ranks. The violence, documented and denied in equal measure, continues to reshape lives on both sides of a border that has become one of the defining fault lines of our era.
- An airstrike on a residential Kharkiv neighborhood wounded six civilians including three children, while shelling in Vovchansk — five kilometers from the Russian border — killed at least four more, including two elderly people shot while trying to flee by car.
- Ukrainian prosecutors opened a war crimes investigation into the strikes, adding to a years-long pattern of documented civilian casualties that Russia continues to deny as deliberate.
- Zelenskiy claimed Ukrainian forces repelled Russian advances and destroyed over twenty armored vehicles, but warned the country has only 25% of the air defenses needed to protect the frontline — a shortage growing more dangerous by the day.
- Russia's defense ministry announced the capture of the village of Starytsia in the Kharkiv region, eight days into a renewed offensive push, while fighting around Chasiv Yar in Donetsk intensified.
- A new mobilization law took effect in Ukraine, offering cash bonuses and housing incentives to soldiers while increasing fines for draft dodgers fivefold — a sign of how urgently Kyiv needs to replenish its forces after more than two years of war.
On the 816th day of Russia's war in Ukraine, prosecutors in Kyiv opened a war crimes investigation after a Russian airstrike struck a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv. Six civilians were wounded, among them three children — aged eight, thirteen, and sixteen — living ordinary lives until the missiles arrived.
The violence extended beyond Kharkiv. Some seventy kilometers northeast, in Vovchansk — a city just five kilometers from the Russian border and now largely in ruins — Russian shelling killed at least four civilians. A sixty-year-old woman died in one strike; two more, aged seventy and eighty-three, were killed as they tried to flee by car. Of the thousands who once lived there, only about a hundred remain.
Ukrainian prosecutors called the strikes potential war crimes. Russia denied targeting civilians. The denials, like the pattern of casualties, have become a fixture of the conflict.
In his nightly address, President Zelenskiy insisted Ukrainian forces were holding ground against the renewed Russian push in Kharkiv and repelling assaults near Chasiv Yar in Donetsk, where soldiers reportedly destroyed more than twenty armored vehicles. But he offered a sobering caveat: Ukraine has only a quarter of the air defenses it needs for frontline protection.
The same day, a new mobilization law came into effect — scaled back from its original form but still significant. It introduced cash bonuses and housing incentives for soldiers, allowed prisoners to enlist, and raised fines for draft dodgers fivefold. Russia, meanwhile, announced the capture of the village of Starytsia in the Kharkiv region. The war grinds on, measured in villages, casualties, and the slow erosion of what both sides have left to give.
On Saturday, the 816th day of Russia's war in Ukraine, prosecutors in Kyiv opened an investigation into what they suspect are war crimes. The focus: a Russian airstrike that struck a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, the regional capital in the country's northeast. Six civilians were wounded in the attack. Among them were three children—an eight-year-old, a thirteen-year-old girl, and a sixteen-year-old boy. The strike landed on ordinary homes where ordinary people were living ordinary lives until the moment the missiles came.
The violence was not confined to Kharkiv. About seventy kilometers to the northeast, in the city of Vovchansk, Russian shelling killed at least four more civilians on the same day. A sixty-year-old woman died in one strike. Three others were wounded. Two more civilians—a seventy-year-old and an eighty-three-year-old—were killed as they attempted to flee the city by car. Vovchansk sits just five kilometers from the Russian border and has become a focal point of Moscow's grinding offensive. The city, once home to thousands, now shelters only about a hundred residents. Most of it lies in ruins.
Ukrainian prosecutors characterized these strikes as potential war crimes. Russia, for its part, denies that it deliberately targets civilians. Yet since the invasion began in February 2022, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed and wounded by Russian fire. The pattern is well documented. The denials continue.
Across the border in Russia's Belgorod region, the violence flowed in the opposite direction. Moscow's defense ministry reported that its forces shot down a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile. A similar missile had struck an apartment building in Belgorod the previous week, causing it to collapse and killing at least fifteen people, according to Russian accounts. On Saturday evening, Belgorod's regional governor reported that a Ukrainian drone attack had injured two people in the village of Petrovka—a man and a woman treated for shrapnel wounds.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, offered a different narrative of the fighting. He said Ukrainian forces were holding their ground against the renewed Russian assault in the Kharkiv region. The occupier, he said, was losing infantry and equipment at a tangible rate. "Just as in 2022, it was counting on a quick advance on our land," Zelenskiy said, invoking the memory of Russia's initial invasion. Yet his optimism came with a sharp caveat: Ukraine possessed only a quarter of the air defenses it needed to adequately protect the frontline. The shortage was acute and growing more dangerous.
On the same day, a new mobilization law took effect in Ukraine. The legislation had been watered down from its original draft but still represented a significant shift in how the country would manage its military manpower. The law would make it easier to identify every conscript in the country and offered incentives to soldiers—cash bonuses, money toward buying a house or a car. Zelenskiy had also signed two companion laws: one allowing prisoners to join the army, another increasing fines for draft dodgers fivefold. Ukraine was struggling to boost troop numbers, and the government was deploying every tool at its disposal.
Russia's defense ministry announced that its forces had captured the village of Starytsia in the Kharkiv region on Saturday, eight days into the new Russian push. Further south, in the eastern Donetsk region, Zelenskiy reported that Ukrainian forces had repelled a Russian assault near Chasiv Yar, a city Moscow views as a key objective. Ukrainian soldiers, he said, had destroyed more than twenty armored vehicles in the counterattack. The war, now more than two years old, continued its grinding calculus of territory, casualties, and attrition—measured in villages captured and lost, in civilians wounded and killed, in the slow depletion of both sides' capacity to continue.
Citações Notáveis
The occupier is losing its infantry and equipment, a tangible loss, even though, just as in 2022, it was counting on a quick advance on our land.— President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Ukraine has only a quarter of the air defenses it needs to hold the frontline.— President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does it matter that prosecutors opened an investigation into the Kharkiv strike specifically? Isn't Russia denying it anyway?
The investigation creates a record. It documents what happened, who was harmed, and establishes a chain of evidence. If there's ever accountability—through international courts or otherwise—that documentation becomes the foundation. Right now it's about bearing witness.
You mentioned Vovchansk has only a hundred residents left. Why would anyone stay in a city that's mostly ruins and five kilometers from the border?
Some people have nowhere else to go. Some are too old or infirm to leave. Some stay because they believe it's their home and leaving means losing it. The hundred who remain are the ones who made that calculation and stayed.
Zelenskiy says his forces are holding ground, but he also says Ukraine only has a quarter of the air defenses it needs. Those two statements seem to contradict each other.
Not really. You can hold ground tactically while being strategically vulnerable. Ukraine is fighting effectively in some places, but without adequate air defense, they're exposed to strikes like the one in Kharkiv. They're holding, but barely, and at great cost.
The new mobilization law offers incentives like money for a house. Does that suggest Ukraine is struggling to find volunteers?
It suggests the pool of willing volunteers has been exhausted. After two years of war, the people who wanted to fight have already enlisted. Now the state has to conscript and incentivize. That's a sign of deep strain.
What does the fact that Russia is still advancing—even slowly—tell us about the trajectory of this war?
That attrition favors whoever can sustain it longer. Russia has more manpower and industrial capacity. Ukraine has motivation and Western support. The question is which runs out first.