‘So much shelling’: Calgary aid worker ventures into Kharkiv under new Russian attack

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Calgarian Paul Hughes had just said that his time spent this week in the war-torn city of Kharkiv had been uneventful.

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“He’s been quiet since I got here. Only one siren so far,” the Canadian military veteran said early Friday Ukraine time.

Less than 30 minutes later, his perspective had changed when a volley of Russian missiles or shells fell on the country’s second-largest city, which is just 26 miles from the border that separates the two countries.

A video he hastily posted shows the crimson trails of a projectile streaking through the darkness and the thud of an impact.

“I spoke too soon. Bombs,” she claimed moments after a series of detonations.

“One was pretty close.”

Hughes counted 25 explosions in and around a city area where he has been delivering medical supplies and food to hungry humans and pets.

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Although Ukrainian forces pushed Russian troops back from Kharkiv in the spring, the shelling has been renewed, as have fears that Moscow soldiers may make another attempt to attack the city in the country’s east.

Kharkiv was one of the most disputed cities in World War II, changing hands four times between the Soviet Army and the German Wehrmacht between 1941 and 1943.

Until now, it has been out of reach of the Russians, but not entirely out of reach, as Hughes can attest.

“There is so much shelling… there is a guy with a lot of serious burns that we are taking to a hospital in Kyiv,” he said.

“He was trapped in one of the attacks; We really don’t know much about it because language is still a big barrier for us.”

Hughes said his latest forays brought him within seven kilometers of Russian troops, whose presence has kept many Kharkiv residents within the shelter of the city’s underground metro system and prevented many others who have fled from returning.

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“The city is bigger than Calgary, but it could be downtown Didsbury, it’s so deserted,” he said.

After nearly the full four months of war between Ukrainians, Hughes said the conflict is wearing them down more and more.

“It is starting to take its toll: people are not doing very well, many lives have been destroyed, there is mass unemployment and nobody has money,” he said, adding that the delivery of supplies such as fuel to the war zone of the this is still a challenge. .

South of Kharkiv, in the country’s Donbas region, outgunned Ukrainian forces are crushed by Russian artillery and slowly pushed back.

Those hardships are only deepening Ukrainians’ hatred of their invaders, Hughes said.

“They are angry people and they want revenge… there is a lot of bad blood,” he said.

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But the Calgarian said he and his group Helping Ukraine — Grassroots Support have been trying to rebuild interrupted lives by building microhomes, something he championed in Calgary.

After launching the effort in bombed-out areas surrounding the capital Kyiv, Hughes said he had been scouting construction sites around Kharkiv.

Volunteers train locals more accustomed to working with bricks on how to build with wood, he said.

“We are buying wood from Ukrainian sawmills and using Ukrainian labor,” Hughes said.

The man known in Calgary for his love of urban farming said he is not sure when he will return to Canada, after obtaining a visa that allows him to stay in Ukraine until the end of 2023.

On Friday, his team delivered supplies to an orphanage in the city of Zhytomyr, where children waved makeshift flags made from maple leaves.

And Hughes said he set aside some time with other volunteers, including some Canadians, to mark Canada Day.

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Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn