Kharkiv in pictures: City left devastated by war as Ukrainians mount counter-offensive

Photographs taken by The Independent reveal the scale of destruction caused by weeks of bombardment

Russia declared it is to drastically scale down its military operation in parts of Ukraine on Tuesday but fierce fighting has continued in the northeastern city of Kharkiv in recent days.

Parts of Kharkiv have been destroyed by Russian shelling and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, warned in an address this week that the situation remains tense in the city and its surrounding suburbs.

Footage filmed in Kharkiv and shared on social media on Wednesday showed blackened Russian tanks and abandoned weapons that had been captured by Ukrainian troops as they mount a counter-offensive.

Oleh Synehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, said the Ukrainian military was conducting operations in the Kharkiv region to repel Russian troops in several directions.

Russian military officials have said they will focus their efforts on eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014.

Russia announced after talks on Tuesday with Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul that it will scale down its activities around Kyiv and Chernihiv in the interests of “mutual trust”.

But that does not mean a ceasefire, Moscow has stressed, and Kyiv has said that Russia is merely pivoting to the east rather than ending the five week-long war.

An adviser to Mr Zelensky said Russia has left some of its forces near Kyiv to tie up Ukrainian troops there and prevent them moving to other areas. Oleksiy Arestovych said that Russia has not yet pulled back any of its troops from the northern city of Chernihiv.

A second senior Ukrainian official warned that the Russian military has continued shelling areas around the Ukrainian capital.

Oleksandr Pavliuk, the head of the Kyiv region military administration, said on Wednesday that there were 30 Russian shellings of the residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the Bucha, Brovary and Vyshhorod regions around the capital.

Here is a selection of images taken by The Independent’s World Affairs Editor, Kim Sengupta, showing destruction on the streets of Kharkiv during his reporting from the city in recent days:

Cars hit by shelling in Kharkiv (Kim Sengupta)

The city is only around 40km (25 miles) from the Russian border (Kim Sengupta)

Kharkiv is said to be the second most shelled city in the Ukraine war after Mariupol (Kim Sengupta)

Official figures claim more than 100 people have died in the city, but the true figure might be significantly higher (Kim Sengupta)

The astonishing image of a rocket lodged in an apartment (Kim Sengupta)

There is widespread devastation across Kharkiv (Kim Sengupta)

Here are photos taken by Captain Aleksandr Osadchy, of the Volunteer ‘Cossack Battalion’ 226, who has been fighting in Kharkiv and captured the destruction he and his battalion have witnessed:

Apartment buildings which have been hit during the war (Aleksandr Osadchy)

A majority of people living in the city speak Russian (Aleksandr Osadchy)

Some 1.4 million people lived in the city before the war started (Aleksandr Osadchy)

Residents claim that among buildings hit are schools (Aleksandr Osadchy)

Residential areas have been hit, although Russia has always claimed it does not target civilians (Aleksandr Osadchy)

The city’s mayor has claimed that attitudes towards Russia have changed drastically since the start of the war (Aleksandr Osadchy)

There has been widespread devastation across Kharkiv (Aleksandr Osadchy)

Around 220 artillery and mortar rounds were fired during 24 hours over last weekend (Aleksandr Osadchy)

The city’s mayor claims Russia ‘is purposefully firing on residential neighbourhoods’ (Aleksandr Osadchy)

Workers try to clear some of the damage (Aleksandr Osadchy)

There has been fierce fighting around the city with Ukrainians using weapons, many supplied by the west (Aleksandr Osadchy)

One estimate claims Russia has lost 1,500 troops in the battle for the city (Aleksandr Osadchy)

Many residents have taken to live in underground shelters across Kharkiv (Aleksandr Osadchy)

A resident walks down the stairs of a damaged building (Aleksandr Osadchy)

Almost 1,200 apartment blocks have been demolished since the start of Russia’s invasion (Aleksandr Osadchy)