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Ukraine's Kharkiv has withstood Russia's relentless strikes. Locals fear what's next
KHARKIV, Ukraine — In Ukraine’s second-largest city, May was the toughest month on record since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than two years ago. Russian forces struck the city every day, sometimes several times a day.
On May 25, Russian forces hit a home improvement shopping center in the Kharkiv neighborhood of Saltivka, killing 19 people, including two children.
Viktoria Kitsenko, 53, was reviewing wallpaper orders when a hot blast knocked her over.
“Everything was falling from above, everything was flying, all dust and fire,” she recalled. “I was just lucky enough to be near an exit.”
Kitsenko said she was used to constant air raid sirens and explosions. But she said everyone in Kharkiv felt like a target after the new offensive began.
“We didn’t even talk about it, we just accepted it,” she said. But when the strike hit her, she said, “it still felt unexpected.”
She stumbled outside, blood on her face, struggling to breathe. She thought about her daughter, who lives abroad, and her parents, who lived in the city. Her father kept calling her cellphone.
In the parking lot she saw bodies and a thick, black plume of smoke rising over her hometown.
“They want an empty city”
About half of Kharkiv’s 2 million people left after Russia’s full-scale invasion. Russian troops occupied villages and land around Kharkiv until September 2022, when Ukrainian forces pushed them out in a surprise counteroffensive.
But with Kharkiv only about 20 miles from the Russian border, the Russians never stopped bombing the city, and stepped up attacks earlier this year. In March, Russian strikes destroyed its two main power plants and network of substations.
The May offensive began after Ukraine’s military warned for months that Russian troops were building up on the border. Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said Russian forces attacked the city 76 times last month — three times more than the previous month. Dozens were killed, and scores injured.
The relentless Russian attacks on the city eventually prompted the Biden administration to lift some restrictions on using U.S.-made weapons to fire across the border at military targets in Russia.
The policy change was supposed to help deter the Russian offensive. Especially terrifying were the use of guided bombs, which Russian forces had been launching on the eastern front line to break through Ukrainian defenses. Unlike simple bombs, guided bombs have wings and tail surfaces for gliding. This allows precise targeting at a distance. Two of these bombs hit the northern neighborhood of Saltivka, destroying its branch of the Epicenter chain of home improvement stores.
Kitsenko and her co-worker, Olha Pobidash, returned to the store the day after the attack. Their boss was missing and presumed dead, along with 18 others.
“This war takes away our best,” Pobidash said.
She wondered why Western allies promise military aid and then delay it for months.
“They don’t feel what we feel,” she said. “If they did, decisions would be made much faster.”
Pobidash and her 16-year-old daughter fled to Poland early in the war, but they returned to Kharkiv at her homesick daughter’s behest.
“She kept saying, bring me back, please bring my life back,” Pobidash said. “She lives and breathes Kharkiv.”
Kitsenko said surviving the bombing changed her perception of her hometown. It no longer felt familiar. It felt dangerous.
“The Russians are trying to make Kharkiv unlivable,” she says. “They want our city, as an empty city perhaps.”
“They are fighting with music”
The constant bombings in May did not bring Kharkiv to a standstill. Offices stayed open, children studied in underground classrooms, cafes and restaurants were busy, city gardeners tended the lush, landscaped parks.
And musicians from two orchestras continued to rehearse for the Kharkiv Music Fest, an annual classical music festival.
“We are artists, and artists cannot live without a performance,” said Varvara Kasianova, the 17-year-old principal violinist for the festival’s children’s orchestra.
The musicians practiced at Kharkiv’s opera theater but not on the majestic main stage. They moved underground for safety reasons.
“I live close to the subway,” Kasianova said, “and so the way to rehearsals is also underground.”
A few days before the show, the orchestra practiced “Ukrainian Suite,” written in 1925 by American composer Quincy Porter. Vitali Alekseenok, the festival’s 33-year-old artistic director, conducted.
“The main thing about people in Kharkiv is that they will fight for their city any way they can,” Alekseenok said. “In this case, they are fighting with music.”
The conductor is originally from Belarus but has lived in Germany for several years. He traveled to Kharkiv just for the festival, as musicians from Europe and the U.S. used to do before the war. This year, nearly every musician in the festival orchestras lives in Kharkiv.
“My wife is worried that I’m here,” he said. “But now I’m in the Kharkiv state of mind. You might be dead in a moment, but until then you keep working, you keep creating.”
During a break from rehearsal, Alekseenok walked to a busy park nearby. Families shared ice cream sundaes, a teenage dance troupe practiced a routine, and grandmothers chatted on wooden benches, under a canopy of trees.
Suddenly, two air raid sirens went off — a sign of heightened danger. Kharkiv is close enough to the Russian border that some missiles arrive in minutes. When the air raid siren goes off, it’s often too late to go to the bomb shelter.
No one in the park left, including Alekseenok.
“It’s always like this,” he said.
Soon, the conductor returned underground to lead a rehearsal of the music fest’s professional orchestra. It’s been shrinking since the war began. There used to be 20 bassoon players.
“Now we have zero,” Alekseenok said. “And we don’t have a tuba player because three, four days before the rehearsal started, he was mobilized. Now he’s going to fight.”
An underground arts fortress
The Kharkiv opera theater was damaged in a Russian attack early in the war. Its leaders created what they call an “arts fortress” in the corridors and spaces under the building.
The week of the performances, concertgoers arrived in droves, some dressed in gowns and suits. They went through security checks, then followed a labyrinth of corridors to reach the wartime stage underground.
The orchestra of adults performed first, playing Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and a concerto for violin and orchestra by Sergei Bortkiewicz, a Kharkiv-born conductor of Polish descent. The featured violinist was Mykhailo Zakharov, who was also born in Kharkiv but has lived in Austria for 20 years. Zakharov returned to his hometown during one of its worst weeks just for the performance.
“I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to be here right now, making music in Kharkiv,” he said, embracing the musicians and members of the audience after the show.
A couple of days later, two Russian missiles hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, destroying the fourth and fifth floors while families were sleeping.
The neighborhood soon filled with the sounds of sirens and firehoses. Terekhov, the mayor, arrived to comfort those waiting for word on their loved ones. Police held back a sobbing man crying out for his wife and daughter.
A few hours later, the children’s orchestra brought the audience to their feet in a rousing standing ovation.
Varvara Kasianova, the principal violinist, said the performance felt like an act of resistance in a city under siege.
“It filled us with confidence and strength,” she said.
“They hit us everywhere”
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the White House announced that it would finally allow Ukraine to fire U.S.-provided weapons into Russian territory — but only across the border from the Kharkiv region.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on June 1 or 2 Ukraine likely struck a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery using an American-supplied HIMARS rocket system. The ISW said the Russian air defense system was located about 50 miles from Kharkiv.
In the Saltivka neighborhood in Kharkiv’s northeast, the strikes continued. Svitlana Poznikina, a 55-year-old pastry shop worker, lives in a Soviet-style high rise apartment pockmarked by shelling.
“A lot of people have left the neighborhood,” she said. “Half of the houses are empty. In my apartment building, it’s only retirees who have run out of money and have nowhere to go.”
Russian forces pummeled Saltivka’s high-rises, markets and parks as they tried to occupy Kharkiv at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. They have struck it repeatedly after launching the new offensive early last month.
Near a boarded-up apartment building, five children run around a playground and pick fruit from a neighborhood cherry tree. Their mother, 31-year-old Tetiana Kovalenko, is pregnant. She said she and her family spend nearly every night in the bomb shelter.
During the day, she says, “they hit us everywhere. We live on the 16th floor, so we can see what comes in and where it hits.”
To stay or go
On June 10, the Institute for the Study of War wrote that the White House’s policy change permitting Ukraine to strike across the border from Kharkiv with some U.S.-provided weapons had reduced the size of Russia’s ground sanctuary by no more than 16%.
“The U.S. policy change, while a step in the right direction, is by itself inadequate and unable to disrupt Russian operations on a large scale,” the institute wrote.
Russian forces continue to strike northeastern Ukraine this month, though not as often. Kharkiv’s mayor told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11 that life is “calmer” since Ukrainian forces were able to target missile launchers in Russia. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces are gradually pushing Russian troops out of the Kharkiv region. Russia, meanwhile, claims it is advancing.
Kitsenko, who survived the attack on the shopping center, said she found it too stressful to continue living in her hometown.
She is now in western Ukraine. She’s not sure she will return to Kharkiv.
NPR producer Hanna Palamarenko contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Copyright 2024 NPR
A bill that could make it a felony for doctors to perform an abortion is moving to the full South Carolina Senate with just a few weeks left in the legislative session.
The South Carolina Senate medical affairs committee continued a debate of Senate Bill 1095 on April 21 in Columbia. The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, builds on a restrictive abortion bill that failed to progress in the fall.
The committee passed the measure in an 8-4 vote, moving it to the full Senate for consideration. Lawmakers have until May 14, the last day of the 2026 legislative session, to pass the bill for it to become law.
Senate Bill 1095, also called the “Unborn Child Protection Act,” bans performing an abortion or supplying abortion drugs. It makes it illegal for a woman to get an abortion, with the only exception being to save a pregnant woman’s life.
It also makes mifepristone and misoprostol Schedule IV controlled substances. Alprazolam (Xanax) and zolpidem (Ambien) are two other examples of Schedule IV substances.
Pro-Life Greenville, an anti-abortion organization based in Greenville, responded to the bill’s progress with “full endorsement” of the legislation.
“Unborn children, like all human beings, deserve to have their lives protected under law here in the Palmetto State,” Pro-Life Greenville stated. “Today’s vote by the SC Senate Medical Affairs Committee brings that urgent need one step closer to reality.”
Under the bill, a woman who has an abortion could face misdemeanor charges. The maximum sentence would be two years in jail with a $1,000 fine.
Those found guilty of performing an abortion or providing a pregnant woman with abortion-inducing drugs could face felony charges, a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, and a possible $100,000 fine.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (PPSAT), a firm opponent of the bill, decried the Senate committee passage. PPSAT Director of Public Affairs Vicki Ringer said in a statement that the bill will cost people their lives, and it will make it more difficult for women to get reproductive and pregnancy healthcare.
“Abortion bans have and will continue to cost people their lives,” Ringer stated. “As this ban inches closer to the governor’s desk, it is becoming increasingly clear just how many of our lives anti-abortion lawmakers are willing to endanger in service to their agenda.”
Bella Carpentier covers the South Carolina legislature, state, and Greenville County politics. Contact her at bcarpentier@gannett.com
BARNWELL, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) – An officer was injured, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has issued a Blue Alert for an “armed and dangerous” woman.
According to the Blue Alert, Cushman is wanted in connection with an officer being injured.
The location of the assault was Gardenia Road in Blackville, S.C.
On Monday night around 10:35 p.m., officials said they were looking for Lacey Cushman, 37, a white woman who is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs about 210 pounds.
According to SLED, she has brown eyes and an unknown hair color. Her hairstyle and clothing are unknown.
She was last seen driving a 2011 white Chevrolet Traverse with an S.C. tag, 706IRU, in Barnwell County.
Her last known direction of travel was toward Bamberg County.
If you see her or have information, call 911 immediately.
Feel more informed, prepared, and connected with FOX Carolina. For more free content like this, download our apps.
Copyright 2026 WHNS. All rights reserved.
by MARK POWELL
***
South Carolina’s first Republican gubernatorial debate in Newberry earlier this month was a cordial affair. Candidates stayed focused on the issues – and kept things civil.
Will the same be said after this week’s second round?
When the curtain rises on Tuesday evening (April 21, 2026) at the College of Charleston’s Sottile Theatre, five of the six GOP candidates have committed to being on stage. Attorney general Alan Wilson, fifth district congressman Ralph Norman and state senator Josh Kimbrell will appear before votes a second time, while lieutenant governor Pamela Evette and Lowcountry businessman Rom Reddy – both of whom skipped the first debate – will make their 2026 debuts.
As of press time, congresswoman Nancy Mace – who had a solid performance during the first exchange – was the only uncommitted candidate, waiting to see how the U.S. House of Representatives’ schedule unfolded.
Regardless of whether there will be five podiums on stage or six, the stakes are incredibly high as we are now just fifty (50) days away from the decisive Republican gubernatorial primary in the Palmetto State. I say “decisive” because the GOP nominee has won the last six governor’s races in South Carolina. Republican nominees are winning by bigger and bigger margins, too, as the last Democrat gubernatorial nominee barely clearly the 40% threshold in 2022.
***
The closer we get to primary day, the more likely things are to get nasty – meaning this week’s GOP exchange is expected to yield far more fireworks than the last one.
We’re told several candidates spent the weekend prepping for this upcoming encounter, boning up on stats and pre-planning “off the cuff” zingers the way college students cram for their finals. They were wise to invest time in such planning, too – because a debate this close to the primary isn’t something a serious candidate wings.
A single, careless slip of the tongue or inadvertent stumble could instantly turn into a lethal landmine – crippling a frontrunner and killing their momentum. Conversely, the ability to think fast on one’s feet when opportunity arises can produce the modern-day political equivalent of the Holy Grail – a viral moment that captures lightning in a bottle, resonates with broad swaths of the electorate and propels a candidate to the front of the pack.
If recent polling is accurate, each campaign needs such a boost, too, as “undecided” still sits squarely in the driver’s seat in this race. Remember this, too: if no candidate receives a majority of votes on June 9, the top two vote-getters would face off in a head-to-head runoff election two weeks later.
Here’s a recap of what to watch for on Tuesday night as each of the six contenders (including Mace, should she show) jockey for position…
***
JOSH KIMBRELL
***
NEEDS: Relevancy
NEEDS TO AVOID: Fallout from his legal drama
WATCH FOR: Who he attacks (and defends)
Let’s be frank: The senator from Spartanburg County is faring so poorly in the polls that it’s unlikely his opponents will waste any of their political capital attacking him.
Also, if recent headlines are any indication, Kimbrell is doing a good enough job damaging his own candidacy.
Things could change in the event Kimbrell – who also performed well during the first debate – manages to land an effective jab against a rival. Guns could then swing his way, and he would likely find himself on the explaining end of unpleasant questions about his ongoing legal woes.
And as they say in politics, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
For Kimbrell, simply coming off the stage with his campaign maintaining a fluttering pulse would be a win – although as we continue to note, his legal troubles have become all-consuming.
Something worth watching is how Kimbrell interacts with the other candidates. Does he attack any of them? Laud any of them? Given the close relationships between certain consultants in this race, the direction of his venom – or praise – could prove telling.
***
PAMELA EVETTE
NEEDS: To step out of the current governor’s shadow
NEEDS TO AVOID: Falling on her face as she does so
WATCH FOR: The number of times she says ‘Trump’
It’s not easy being second banana in South Carolina, where the executive branch is already constitutionally neutered. It gets even harder when your time comes to seek the top job – and there’s very little to show for your time in office.
Such is the dilemma confronting the “lite governor.”
Yes, Pamela Evette has been long-serving governor Henry McMaster‘s dutiful co-pilot these past eight years. And yes, she has reaped the backing of a big chunk of the state’s GOP establishment as her reward. But when the question turns to, “what has she really accomplished?” the answers don’t suggest bold visionary leadership. Sure, highway beautification, stepping on golden shovels at groundbreakings, and saluting student accomplishments are all well and good. But at a moment in its history when South Carolinians are restless and increasingly intolerant of the status quo, such establishment photo-ops “don’t feed the bulldog,” as they say.
The noticeable lack of yeast in Evette’s polling numbers (despite her spending more money than any other candidate) bears witness to her struggle.
In fairness to Evette, the office she currently occupies was specifically designed not to accomplish much (thus ensuring the spotlight always falls on the governor). Still, she needs to move beyond, “if you like what you got from Henry these last ten years, you’ll love what you’ll get from me.”
Voters aren’t having that this cycle, which is one reason why Evette hasn’t advanced in the polls.
It’s a tightrope, though. At the same time she seeks to distance herself from the status quo, Evette can’t afford to let a single ray of sunlight come between her and her boss, either. Or else it’s an indictment of her, too.
This much is certain: Expert to hear that Evette loves Donald Trump. A lot.
Many believe Evette’s only path to victory is by securing Trump’s endorsement – something it appeared for awhile as though she had the inside track to receive. The longer she goes without getting it, though, the narrower her path becomes.
***
NANCY MACE
NEEDS: An electability argument
NEEDS TO AVOID: Aggression overload
WATCH FOR: Her homestretch strategy
Should she show up, you’ve got to wonder which version of Nancy Mace will take the stage. Will it be the “Nice Nancy” we saw at Congressman Russell Fry’s recent candidate forum in Florence? Or will it be the “Primary Pitbull,” the Mace who unofficially kicked off her campaign with a scathing “scorched earth” attack on Alan Wilson delivered from the floor of the U.S. House?
Mace can be a polarizing political personality. Those who like her really, really like her; conversely, those who dislike her do so with a vengeance. But with the primary so close at hand – and so many voters still undecided – she needs to convince the GOP base of her electability. Being a bomb thrower on issues she feels passionate about may be good for grabbing headlines, but is it a sound approach to winning over eleventh hour converts?
Then there are her personal issues. Most notably, her infamous meltdown with officials at Charleston’s airport late last October. Although Mace’s base stayed with her after that contretemps, conventional wisdom suggests the disapproval it produced in other Republicans is too baked into the cake to overcome.
Should she participate, the debate could be her last best chance to turn the page once and for all.
Mace’s performance in Charleston – her backyard – will also reveal what sort of approach she intends to bring to the final seven weeks of this race.
***
RALPH NORMAN
NEEDS: A rebound
NEEDS TO AVOID: Being cast as a D.C. insider
WATCH FOR: A breakout ‘relatability’ moment
Ralph Norman didn’t have his best performance during the first GOP debate – but he’s promised his supporters he’s not going to let it happen again.
For Norman to succeed onstage in Charleston, he needs to differentiate. This being South Carolina, every candidate with an ‘R’ beside their name claims to be a conservative. But a growing number of those on the right flank of the ideological spectrum – including the founding editor of this media outlet – insist that’s no longer good enough.
And South Carolina’s consistently less-than-robust outcomes would support that view…
These voters want proof that a candidate’s conservative rhetoric on the campaign trail is matched by a consistently conservative voting record in office. As a member of the U.S. House’s Freedom Caucus, Ralph Norman’s bona fides are established. However, serving on Capitol Hill these days is accompanied by the tainted stench of Washington. Look for someone to try to tag him as a “Washington Insider,” a point which Norman has given them some ammunition to hit him with.
Norman has done a good job of differentiating so far. For example, while most of the candidates who appeared at Fry’s forum mentioned earlier discussed the same issues (deplorable roads, the pressing need for judicial reform, etc.), Norman talked about them in a down-home, folksy way that had many in the audience nodding in agreement.
If he establishes “relatability street cred” Tuesday night, it could open up a new path for support while also creating new headaches for his opponents.
***
ROM REDDY
NEEDS: A breakthrough
NEEDS TO AVOID: Talking over people
WATCH FOR: A new dynamic to the debate
You never get a second chance to make a first impression, as the old saying goes… and the Charleston debate will be a political first date of sorts for Rom Reddy, a local multi-millionaire and founder of the since-scuttled DOGE SC movement. A known commodity in the Palmetto Lowcountry, Reddy remains a mystery to many rank-and-file Republicans across the state.
Seeing as this will be the first time a substantial number of them take his measure, how will the diminutive Indian-Italian stack up next to the competition? Reddy has previously bashed his rivals as “clowns.” What happens if he fails to impress against them?
Because he’s only been in the race for six weeks – during which time he’s spent at least $1.5 million to boost his name identification – Reddy is a definitional wildcard. He’s also a political novice, one who will be surrounded on stage by experienced campaigners.
Reddy has many bold, innovative ideas for the state. However, he needs to avoid unloading too many at once and steer clear of diving into too many policy details. Voters are just getting to know him, after all.
Still, there’s no denying that Reddy has a strategic opportunity to turn this race on its head.
Will he seize it on Tuesday night?
Reddy must also learn to adapt to political realities. Jumping in the race so late means he has to make up a lot of ground – in a limited amount of time. For him to have a chance to make the GOP runoff election on June 9, he needs to take out the politician most likely to capture the votes he needs. That’s Norman – so watch and see if Reddy trains his fire on his fellow multi-millionaire during Tuesday night’s exchange.
***
ALAN WILSON
NEEDS: To be the adult on stage
NEEDS TO AVOID: Taking the bulk of the attacks
WATCH FOR: Strong counterpunches
Alan Wilson’s newly released campaign commercial touts his service in the Iraq War. That experience will likely come in handy on Tuesday night, as the four-term attorney general – the race’s frontrunner – is expected to face a barrage of incoming attacks.
Wilson leads his rivals in the polls – and in the pivotal money battle. That makes him the top target in this race, and the likely recipient of the most attacks on the debate stage Tuesday evening (Evette in particular is likely to be gunning for him).
There’s a big risk with the strategy of attacking Wilson, however. The veteran prosecutor has tried to remain above the fray throughout this contest, and for the most part he’s succeeded. But as the old saying reminds us, you can only poke the bear so many times before the bear roars back.
Wilson has strategically absorbed several punches during this race – but he will not permit himself to become a punching bag as it enters its pivotal phase. In other words, candidates who insist on going after him should be prepared for him to punch back.
Wilson’s team has portrayed him as the grown-up in this race, the one candidate who has stayed above name-calling and petty mudslinging. They would like to preserve that image – but it may not be possible much longer.
It’s often remarked in political circles that Wilson is a gentleman, a truly nice guy. But opponents who think he’ll simply roll over and play dead without fighting back could be in for a surprise. Because sometimes, even the most polished gentleman has a good right hook – and reason to use it.
We have no idea what counterpunches the Wilson campaign is cooking up. But we would be thunderstruck if he walks onto that stage with his guard down.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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