Burned houses and cars, smashed windows, blood stains on the asphalt, dead bodies covered on the ground — wounds on the body of the city. From every shelling, “arrival” or other consequences of Russian attacks, people suffer, and with them their property acquired during their lifetime. Favorite places disappear, historical architecture collapses, high-rise buildings become abandoned haunted houses, and the panorama of the city loses its usual appearance. For two years, the Russians have been mercilessly trying to take Kharkov: at first — by assault, but after failing they resorted to missile and drone terror. Someone's home, first place of work, a bar for dates and meetings with friends, a university, etc. are goals for Russians. The city is erased before our eyes, only memories and photos remain. We talk to Kharkiv residents — local documentarians who have to capture almost every place of pain in their hometown. Pavel Dorogoy, Yakov Lyashenko and Oleksandr Magula told about the wounds of Kharkov, which hurt them too.
Photographer Alexander Magula invited the girls to meet there, and Yakov Lyashenko and his friends dreamed of celebrating the upcoming victory there. However, on March 14, a Russian Iskander rocket hit the historic 1911 building on Svobody Street, where the Old Ham was in the basement. The pub, which was named after the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway, no longer exists. The place where creative youth gathered and Serhiy Zhadan held literary evenings is now a ruin. Then two people died. For Alexander, this bar was one of the favorite places of rest in Kharkiv: “When my friends and I were still students, we often went there. Just as often we left the bar for a smoke break and looked at the old building opposite. It is hard to believe that it is destroyed, like the bar itself. The Russians are erasing a lot of important places.”.
During the full-scale invasion of the Russians, the bar became an improvised bomb shelter for Kharkov residents: they stopped pouring beer there, but began to provide shelter. “I don't have a photo of this place and its ruins. Because we went there to rest, not to document.”,— photographer Yakov Lyashenko shares with sadness.
Pavlo Dorohoy and Oleksandr Magula lived in Saltovka, the largest residential area of Kharkiv for a certain period of their lives. Before the start of a full-scale war, about half a million people lived here, that is, almost a third of the city's population. Now it is one of the largest, most famous and most painful wounds of Kharkov, especially its northern part. From there, the invaders tried to storm the city.
“From my house I can see Russia,” Alexander Magula begins, “and when the alarm began, I noticed a light from the window on the horizon. Missiles flew from the Russian Federation. After 40-50 seconds there was an explosion in Kharkiv. It meant that the missiles had already arrived.”
Alexander Magula compares his house with an observation deck, where you could observe not only beautiful sunsets, but also what Russia will do with Kharkov in a few seconds. One day, when he was at home, it flew near his house to a nearby street. He felt the windows in his apartment close. “I saw a huge red flame. It looked like a gateway to hell. It was very scary then,” Magula recalls.
Pavel Dear's childhood was also spent on Saltovka, with which the best memories associate him. “I love this area very much. Many consider him to be depressed. I lived on the 9th floor and always loved to see what is out there beyond these houses. I looked at the edge of the city and the fields behind it,” Paul shares. For him, Saltovka is the first green area with developed infrastructure and native streets, where his mother still lives. “Block building of panels, where near the cinema “Russia” and shopping center “Ukraine” is such a combination,” Pavel notes.
Pavel Dorogoy says that it was difficult for him to shoot what the Russians turned his Saltivka into. There he saw what he began to call the “tree of war”, when someone's things hang on the branches, which were thrown from buildings by an explosive wave. “This is such a very scary thing for me, too. It is clear that these are just things, but they are someone's things. Where are their owners? What about these people?” — Paul shares.
Yakov Lyashenko calls Saltivka a “panel anthill”, he never lived here and did not want to, but even more would not like to see all these ruins and the misfortune that the inhabitants of this area had to face. The Russians mercilessly bombed all of Kharkiv and Saltivka as well. 70% of the northern part of the district is destroyed. People lived in the subway for weeks. Yakov Lyashenko still clearly remembers the first time he came to North Saltovka with foreign journalists during active Russian attacks in the spring of 2022.
“April 1st. It was very scary. 10 minutes before our arrival, the Russian “Grad” just worked there. We saw a high-rise building on fire, and a lonely grandmother was walking near it. Russian artillery worked, and an elderly woman calmly walked around this house. The military persuaded her to leave, but she did not want to. She remained in that danger. She chose to be at home. This picture impressed me very much,” says Yakov Lyashenko.
.jpeg)
After the counteroffensive of Ukrainian troops in September 2022, when our Defense Forces pushed the Russians to the border, life in Saltovka became calmer. Many of the people whose homes survived returned home.
On March 1, 2022, the Russians hit the city center with two missiles during the Battle for Kharkiv. Then the building of the regional military administration was damaged. As a result, 44 people died.
“This is the central square of the city. This is the heart of the city. Every resident of Kharkiv passes by there almost every day. There is a park and Derzhprom nearby. Such is the business card of Kharkov. Perhaps this attack was the most painful for me.” — shares Pavlo Dorogoy. Then for the first time the Russians struck the center of Kharkov, and the historical buildings were also destroyed. Before the eyes of the photographer, the bodies of the dead were carried out from under the rubble for two weeks.
“It was such a strong moral blow. Until that moment, it seemed that the war was somewhere around Kharkov, and then it seemed obvious. Closer. She's here. Since then, a lot has changed in the city and myself,” says Pavlo.
Pavel Dorogoy says that it was the photograph that gave him the strength to document everything that happens to his hometown. “Somehow it turns out to be strange that photography, on the one hand, makes it possible to be an observer, as if to look away, and on the other hand, it is impossible not to miss all these events through oneself,” says Paul.
In the center of Kharkiv are located one of the top institutions of higher education in Ukraine. Education was also not bypassed by Russian missiles. Russian troops attacked Kharkiv National University of Urban Economy named after O. M. Beketova, removing two floors. Alexander Magula documented the damaged building, where he had often visited before. There his friends studied, there he went to additional classes in English.
“It was hard to see these ruined walls when you remember them whole.” — says Alexander Magula. The number of places expensive for him, which are destroyed by the Russians, is becoming more and more. “In addition, my university named after V. N.D. Karazin, in particular the Department of Journalism, where I studied. The feeling that my city in general is turning into a ruin. This list also includes two of my first editions.”057.ua” and “Gwara Media”. I am afraid that one day I will come home and my city will turn into Gaza. — says Alexander Magula.
“I understand that there are many buildings that we have lost forever.” - ponders Pavlo Dorogoy. - They will not be restored. Because even before the war in Kharkiv there was a problem with the architectural heritage in general and with the development of the city. Now it's only going to get worse, I think. Of course, it upsets and even makes you angry. Sometimes it seems that we don't even need an external enemy. We ourselves will destroy what previous generations built, even if it is a generation of Soviet Ukrainians.”
The documentarian observes that the war hurts not only because of the lost architecture, yet the worst thing is that people who are left without housing suffer. In Kharkiv, there are those who were reached by Russian aggression for the second time, says Pavlo: “They came from an area where the Russians had already destroyed their home. This is the most painful thing that people get more than once.”
Incursions into a high-rise building or a private house, an industrial facility, an oil base, a terminal of Novaya Poshta, queues of people receiving humanitarian assistance, etc. — the list is long and constantly increasing. Yakov Lyashenko is among those Kharkov documentarians who almost daily record the criminal actions of Russians for foreign media. It is difficult for him to determine where the “arrival” of diseases is most severe. He learns about the explosions from the window of his apartment, so he instantly goes to the scene of the shelling. “When there is an “arrival” in Kharkov — I hear. I do not expect the alarm to go off, but immediately go to the place to document the events. Because if I wait, there will be nothing and no one there when I arrive,” says Jacob.
He does not hide that what is often seen on the shooting scene does not leave him indifferent: “One day at the scene of the tragedy there was a puddle of blood and a finger of a man. The wounded and dead were already taken away, and that finger remained on the ground. It's impossible not to think about it.”
Yakov Lyashenko concludes: “If I photographed something civilian, I could choose what to shoot. And now I choose nothing. This war chooses me. You have to take what is.”
Oleksandr Magula notes that, according to his observations, the portrait of the average Kharkiv resident has also changed, because previously the city was a student one. “I noticed this change in the subway. Before, there were always a lot of young people, now I walk in and notice that I can be almost the only young man in the car,” Oleksandr shares.
With fewer people and fewer cars. However, the roads — the arteries of the city — circulate, sometimes there are traffic jams and parking problems. “It is clear that people live, people fight, people celebrate life, somehow hold on. It is wonderful, but the ruins that have become scars remain. When you see them, it's always upsetting,” adds Pavlo Dorogoi.
But despite the drone attacks, Kharkiv is alive. Cultural events are held in the city. Kharkiv residents themselves are returning home despite the shelling. “In Kharkiv, even during the war, there are probably more events happening than in cities that do not know what war is. Concerts are held here and theaters work,” Yakov Lyashenko also notes that new cafes are opening in the city. “People start from scratch. They worked hard under shelling in extreme conditions to open up. Such Kharkov residents did what they could to keep their city alive. Respect them for that.”
Whether Kharkiv will be the same as before the invasion, no one can predict, but, perhaps, it is not worth it. A new page of the history of the Hero City continues to be written daily. However, unfortunately, it is filled mainly with dates of Russian attacks, notes on the number of victims and is visually confirmed by documentary photos, so that nothing and no one is forgotten.
“Once, military friends from Kraken told me: in order for everything to be fine in Kharkov, it is necessary that the border line with the Russian Federation passes at least through the center of Belgorod. Then, having moved such a leading edge, we will be able to install air defense in Kharkov, and it will be able to protect us. This is such a joke, but, perhaps, there is a lot of truth in this,” - Alexander Magula hopes that, perhaps, in this case, the Russians will stop attacking the city with at least S-300 missiles.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
Burned houses and cars, smashed windows, blood stains on the asphalt, dead bodies covered on the ground — wounds on the body of the city. From every shelling, “arrival” or other consequences of Russian attacks, people suffer, and with them their property acquired during their lifetime. Favorite places disappear, historical architecture collapses, high-rise buildings become abandoned haunted houses, and the panorama of the city loses its usual appearance. For two years, the Russians have been mercilessly trying to take Kharkov: at first — by assault, but after failing they resorted to missile and drone terror. Someone's home, first place of work, a bar for dates and meetings with friends, a university, etc. are goals for Russians. The city is erased before our eyes, only memories and photos remain. We talk to Kharkiv residents — local documentarians who have to capture almost every place of pain in their hometown. Pavel Dorogoy, Yakov Lyashenko and Oleksandr Magula told about the wounds of Kharkov, which hurt them too.
Photographer Alexander Magula invited the girls to meet there, and Yakov Lyashenko and his friends dreamed of celebrating the upcoming victory there. However, on March 14, a Russian Iskander rocket hit the historic 1911 building on Svobody Street, where the Old Ham was in the basement. The pub, which was named after the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway, no longer exists. The place where creative youth gathered and Serhiy Zhadan held literary evenings is now a ruin. Then two people died. For Alexander, this bar was one of the favorite places of rest in Kharkiv: “When my friends and I were still students, we often went there. Just as often we left the bar for a smoke break and looked at the old building opposite. It is hard to believe that it is destroyed, like the bar itself. The Russians are erasing a lot of important places.”.
During the full-scale invasion of the Russians, the bar became an improvised bomb shelter for Kharkov residents: they stopped pouring beer there, but began to provide shelter. “I don't have a photo of this place and its ruins. Because we went there to rest, not to document.”,— photographer Yakov Lyashenko shares with sadness.
Pavlo Dorohoy and Oleksandr Magula lived in Saltovka, the largest residential area of Kharkiv for a certain period of their lives. Before the start of a full-scale war, about half a million people lived here, that is, almost a third of the city's population. Now it is one of the largest, most famous and most painful wounds of Kharkov, especially its northern part. From there, the invaders tried to storm the city.
“From my house I can see Russia,” Alexander Magula begins, “and when the alarm began, I noticed a light from the window on the horizon. Missiles flew from the Russian Federation. After 40-50 seconds there was an explosion in Kharkiv. It meant that the missiles had already arrived.”
Alexander Magula compares his house with an observation deck, where you could observe not only beautiful sunsets, but also what Russia will do with Kharkov in a few seconds. One day, when he was at home, it flew near his house to a nearby street. He felt the windows in his apartment close. “I saw a huge red flame. It looked like a gateway to hell. It was very scary then,” Magula recalls.
Pavel Dear's childhood was also spent on Saltovka, with which the best memories associate him. “I love this area very much. Many consider him to be depressed. I lived on the 9th floor and always loved to see what is out there beyond these houses. I looked at the edge of the city and the fields behind it,” Paul shares. For him, Saltovka is the first green area with developed infrastructure and native streets, where his mother still lives. “Block building of panels, where near the cinema “Russia” and shopping center “Ukraine” is such a combination,” Pavel notes.
Pavel Dorogoy says that it was difficult for him to shoot what the Russians turned his Saltivka into. There he saw what he began to call the “tree of war”, when someone's things hang on the branches, which were thrown from buildings by an explosive wave. “This is such a very scary thing for me, too. It is clear that these are just things, but they are someone's things. Where are their owners? What about these people?” — Paul shares.
Yakov Lyashenko calls Saltivka a “panel anthill”, he never lived here and did not want to, but even more would not like to see all these ruins and the misfortune that the inhabitants of this area had to face. The Russians mercilessly bombed all of Kharkiv and Saltivka as well. 70% of the northern part of the district is destroyed. People lived in the subway for weeks. Yakov Lyashenko still clearly remembers the first time he came to North Saltovka with foreign journalists during active Russian attacks in the spring of 2022.
“April 1st. It was very scary. 10 minutes before our arrival, the Russian “Grad” just worked there. We saw a high-rise building on fire, and a lonely grandmother was walking near it. Russian artillery worked, and an elderly woman calmly walked around this house. The military persuaded her to leave, but she did not want to. She remained in that danger. She chose to be at home. This picture impressed me very much,” says Yakov Lyashenko.
After the counteroffensive of Ukrainian troops in September 2022, when our Defense Forces pushed the Russians to the border, life in Saltovka became calmer. Many of the people whose homes survived returned home.
On March 1, 2022, the Russians hit the city center with two missiles during the Battle for Kharkiv. Then the building of the regional military administration was damaged. As a result, 44 people died.
“This is the central square of the city. This is the heart of the city. Every resident of Kharkiv passes by there almost every day. There is a park and Derzhprom nearby. Such is the business card of Kharkov. Perhaps this attack was the most painful for me.” — shares Pavlo Dorogoy. Then for the first time the Russians struck the center of Kharkov, and the historical buildings were also destroyed. Before the eyes of the photographer, the bodies of the dead were carried out from under the rubble for two weeks.
“It was such a strong moral blow. Until that moment, it seemed that the war was somewhere around Kharkov, and then it seemed obvious. Closer. She's here. Since then, a lot has changed in the city and myself,” says Pavlo.
Pavel Dorogoy says that it was the photograph that gave him the strength to document everything that happens to his hometown. “Somehow it turns out to be strange that photography, on the one hand, makes it possible to be an observer, as if to look away, and on the other hand, it is impossible not to miss all these events through oneself,” says Paul.
In the center of Kharkiv are located one of the top institutions of higher education in Ukraine. Education was also not bypassed by Russian missiles. Russian troops attacked Kharkiv National University of Urban Economy named after O. M. Beketova, removing two floors. Alexander Magula documented the damaged building, where he had often visited before. There his friends studied, there he went to additional classes in English.
“It was hard to see these ruined walls when you remember them whole.” — says Alexander Magula. The number of places expensive for him, which are destroyed by the Russians, is becoming more and more. “In addition, my university named after V. N.D. Karazin, in particular the Department of Journalism, where I studied. The feeling that my city in general is turning into a ruin. This list also includes two of my first editions.”057.ua” and “Gwara Media”. I am afraid that one day I will come home and my city will turn into Gaza. — says Alexander Magula.
“I understand that there are many buildings that we have lost forever.” - ponders Pavlo Dorogoy. - They will not be restored. Because even before the war in Kharkiv there was a problem with the architectural heritage in general and with the development of the city. Now it's only going to get worse, I think. Of course, it upsets and even makes you angry. Sometimes it seems that we don't even need an external enemy. We ourselves will destroy what previous generations built, even if it is a generation of Soviet Ukrainians.”
The documentarian observes that the war hurts not only because of the lost architecture, yet the worst thing is that people who are left without housing suffer. In Kharkiv, there are those who were reached by Russian aggression for the second time, says Pavlo: “They came from an area where the Russians had already destroyed their home. This is the most painful thing that people get more than once.”
Incursions into a high-rise building or a private house, an industrial facility, an oil base, a terminal of Novaya Poshta, queues of people receiving humanitarian assistance, etc. — the list is long and constantly increasing. Yakov Lyashenko is among those Kharkov documentarians who almost daily record the criminal actions of Russians for foreign media. It is difficult for him to determine where the “arrival” of diseases is most severe. He learns about the explosions from the window of his apartment, so he instantly goes to the scene of the shelling. “When there is an “arrival” in Kharkov — I hear. I do not expect the alarm to go off, but immediately go to the place to document the events. Because if I wait, there will be nothing and no one there when I arrive,” says Jacob.
He does not hide that what is often seen on the shooting scene does not leave him indifferent: “One day at the scene of the tragedy there was a puddle of blood and a finger of a man. The wounded and dead were already taken away, and that finger remained on the ground. It's impossible not to think about it.”
Yakov Lyashenko concludes: “If I photographed something civilian, I could choose what to shoot. And now I choose nothing. This war chooses me. You have to take what is.”
Oleksandr Magula notes that, according to his observations, the portrait of the average Kharkiv resident has also changed, because previously the city was a student one. “I noticed this change in the subway. Before, there were always a lot of young people, now I walk in and notice that I can be almost the only young man in the car,” Oleksandr shares.
With fewer people and fewer cars. However, the roads — the arteries of the city — circulate, sometimes there are traffic jams and parking problems. “It is clear that people live, people fight, people celebrate life, somehow hold on. It is wonderful, but the ruins that have become scars remain. When you see them, it's always upsetting,” adds Pavlo Dorogoi.
But despite the drone attacks, Kharkiv is alive. Cultural events are held in the city. Kharkiv residents themselves are returning home despite the shelling. “In Kharkiv, even during the war, there are probably more events happening than in cities that do not know what war is. Concerts are held here and theaters work,” Yakov Lyashenko also notes that new cafes are opening in the city. “People start from scratch. They worked hard under shelling in extreme conditions to open up. Such Kharkov residents did what they could to keep their city alive. Respect them for that.”
Whether Kharkiv will be the same as before the invasion, no one can predict, but, perhaps, it is not worth it. A new page of the history of the Hero City continues to be written daily. However, unfortunately, it is filled mainly with dates of Russian attacks, notes on the number of victims and is visually confirmed by documentary photos, so that nothing and no one is forgotten.
“Once, military friends from Kraken told me: in order for everything to be fine in Kharkov, it is necessary that the border line with the Russian Federation passes at least through the center of Belgorod. Then, having moved such a leading edge, we will be able to install air defense in Kharkov, and it will be able to protect us. This is such a joke, but, perhaps, there is a lot of truth in this,” - Alexander Magula hopes that, perhaps, in this case, the Russians will stop attacking the city with at least S-300 missiles.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
UAPP is an independent association of professional Ukrainian photographers, designed to protect their interests, support, develop and promote Ukrainian photography as an important element of national culture.
UAPP's activities span educational, social, research and cultural initiatives, as well as book publishing.
UAPP represents Ukrainian professional photography in the international photographic community and is an official member of the Federation of European Photographers (FEP) — an international organization representing more than 50,000 professional photographers in Europe and other countries around the world.
