At a time when Ukraine is widely acknowledged to have lost momentum along a battlefront stretching hundreds of miles, Russia has explicitly signaled its designs on Kharkiv: to overrun the city, or render it uninhabitable, or both.

The arrival of newly approved but long-delayed U.S. military aid may help blunt that push, military analysts said, but the months ahead are likely to be particularly dangerous ones in and near the city.

"The Kremlin is conducting a concerted air and information operation to destroy Kharkiv city, convince Ukrainians to flee, and internally displace millions of Ukrainians ahead of a possible future Russian offensive operation against the city or elsewhere in Ukraine," the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment this week.

In the face of it all, daily life goes on.

Generators roar and sputter on Kharkiv's sidewalks, powering businesses and cafes during frequent outages. Schoolchildren holding fast to parents' hands descend into classrooms constructed inside subway stations. First responders rush to the scene of daily strikes, despite deadly loss that has touched their ranks, even their own families.

"Being here is a very specific choice," said Alyona Udalova, a 34-year-old dance instructor walking her dog in the shrapnel-pocked city center.

"There are so many explosions, but the mind adapts," said Udalova, who also works at a camp for displaced children. "It's sad to adapt to this, but you do."

In a park in the city center, close to a monument dedicated to children killed in the conflict — its base strewn with teddy bears — a pair of pensioners named Raisa and Nataliya shrugged off the idea of hardship.

There was food in the supermarkets and music in the cafes, they said. Their main complaint at the moment was the falling drizzle.

Asked for their full names, they hooted raucously.

...continued

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.