Around Kharkiv, Ukrainians Emerge to Find Lives in Ruin

Air raid sirens wail daily and the steady rumble of artillery can still be heard in the distance, but Ukrainian forces this month pushed Russian troops out of the eastern city of Kharkiv and beyond striking distance.

After sheltering underground since February, residents of the city, Ukraine’s second-most populous, and its surrounding villages have finally been able to venture out for the first time and return to their neighborhoods to assess the damage the Russians left behind. The discoveries have been grisly.

Yuri Emets, 56, returned last week to find his home in the once bucolic village of Vilkhivka had been hit by several shells, blasting away most of the top floor. The bodies of seven Ukrainian soldiers had been dumped behind his garden shed. It appeared they had been hiding in his basement vegetable cellar when they were discovered by Russian forces and killed. Read more

@nytimes