A NEW ALEPPO?

Ten days ago Kharkiv was a flourishing metropolis and home to 1.5 million people. It was, as resident Galina Padalko put it, “a beautiful place”. There were parks, a new German architect-designed zoo, thriving cafes and restaurants and a monumental central square, once adorned with a statue of Lenin. The city had several universities, international students, a ballet theatre and a cathedral that had withstood the past century’s darkest moments.

In a few savage days, Kharkiv was transformed into a living hell. Many inhabitants shelter underground in basements, metro stations and ground-floor corridors. Russian forces have relentlessly bombarded the city, pulverising apartment blocks and other civilian targets and threatening to turn Kharkiv into a new Aleppo, which also faced Russian bombing, or a 21st century Guernica. It has borne