The worst is yet to come for the Sumy region, in Ukraine's northeast, according to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi. On April 9, he indicated that the Russian spring offensive on the Kharkiv and Sumy regions had, indeed, begun a week ago, with intensified assaults.

Mykola Toryanyk, 58, mayor and head of the Khotin district, located about ten kilometers north of the city of Sumy, was prepared for this bad news. "One-fifth of Khotin's homes are already destroyed," he said, through gritted teeth. A former police investigator, he had piercing eyes and a sturdy physique. The Khotin district is located in a hilly border area, and it has been the target of massive bombings since the beginning of March. Clinging to the steering wheel of an ambulance, his jaw clenched with tension, he resembled a captain holding tight to the helm of a sinking ship.

The mayor drove as fast as possible on the village's battered roads. There was almost no one outside and no visible activity, but four of the village's ten grocery stores were still open, said Toryanyk. He pointed out the war's impacts on the village, which had housed 3,000 residents before the invasion. Here, a Grad rocket lay stuck in a median strip; there, a gymnasium had been blown apart. The Favor motor oil factory, the community's main employer, had been largely destroyed by four Shahed attack drones.

'Stay on alert all the time'

What disgusted the mayor, however, was the complete destruction, on March 12, of Khotin's municipal school, which had served 600 students. Built on the site of an old noble residence, the imposing building, which had been renovated just before the February 2022 invasion, was located in the middle of a vast clearing, nestled among the beauty of nature, a bit away from the village. An Iskander-M ballistic missile had struck the school right in its center and demolished it. Children, all of whom were evacuated from the district over a year ago, no longer set foot there.

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