Thousands of people took to the streets of Ukraine's second largest city
carrying banners reading "Kharkiv is Ukraine" and "Stop Russia's
Aggression". The protests broke out as the country braced for a possible
military attack from Russia.
Weeks of diplomacy between the West and Moscow yielded no breakthrough after
Russia amassed tens of thousands of troops near the Ukrainian border.
Moscow itself denies planning to attack Ukraine but demands security
guarantees, including blocking Ukraine from joining the NATO alliance.
Kharkiv, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located 42km from the Russian
border, was identified by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a
possible Russian target for occupation if the situation escalated, though
his spokesman later said he was speaking hypothetically.
Demonstrators in Kharkiv marched between the city's two main squares in
sub-zero temperatures on Saturday.
They sing the national anthem and wave the Ukrainian flag, or raise the
flags of allies who have supported Kiev, including the United States,
Britain and the European Union.
"People are taking to the streets to show that Kharkiv is a Ukrainian city
and we will not give it up," Kharkiv resident Nina Kvitko told Reuters news
agency quoted by Al Jazeera, Sunday (6/2/2022).
A Ukrainian flag wrapped around her shoulder, retired Iryna Gayeva had a
simple message as she demonstrated. "We don't want Russia," he told AFP news
agency.
“I was born in Crimea. That's enough, they've already taken the homeland
from me. I grew up here, I live here, my parents are from Russia but I don't
want to see any invaders." "This is my house, my rules," he insisted.
Galyna Kuts, a political scientist in Kharkiv and a member of the regional
legislature, said Zelenskyy's warnings about a potential "occupation" made
residents uneasy.
"Everyone is calling each other asking what to do, where to run to," he said
while attending the protest.
But after years of living under constant threat of invasion, he insists that
residents in Kharkiv have braced themselves for any eventuality. "People
have changed, they know how to survive," he said.
Another resident, Oleksandr Gerasimov, has filled his tank and is ready to
evacuate his family if necessary.
But the 39-year-old demonstrator insisted he remained "calm" because he did
not believe Moscow would take the risk by carrying out an attack on the
Ukrainian-backed armed forces. "Russia will suffer intolerable losses," he
said.
