A bunch of Russian messaging channels have been swearing that the mayor of Kharkiv has left his city, Ukraine's second largest. Some, on Telegram, have even said that he's dead. "Wrong, of course," sighed Ihor Terekhov, his features drawn and his hair white. To prove otherwise, the mayor of Kharkiv has had to regularly post a brief video compilation of his daily activities on his Telegram channel. On February 24, he commemorated the date of his country's invasion at the "Historical Museum" metro station, a place he knows all too well: He had walked along its rails and all through its tunnels in March 2022, when the Russians were bombing Kharkiv and the metro was the only way to get around safely.

It's true that Terekhov no longer governs from his city hall. That would be too dangerous. Kharkiv, which had 1.5 million inhabitants before the war, is less than 40 kilometers from the Russian border. The mayor has therefore deserted the abandoned the building, in the historic heart of this university town in northeastern Ukraine, and is now camped out in secret offices. To meet with him, his employees first set a secondary location via GPS location, and then guide visitors to Terekhov's latest address – already almost the tenth since the city hall was targeted by the enemy on March 2, 2022.

Over 2,420 civilians have been killed in Kharkiv over the past two years. Nearly 2,300 more are missing – including more than 260 children – according to Volodymyr Tymoshko, the city's police chief. As for the wounded, he put the figure at 3,516. Military losses remain secret, but in the city's 20 or so cemeteries, "heroes' alleys" are stretching longer every month, with fresh graves and flags flying in the cold wind. "The Russians have changed tactics. The first winter, they attacked our energy infrastructure; for the last two months, they've been increasingly shelling civilians," explained the mayor, with drones and above all the unstoppable S-300 missiles. 10 to 15 alerts are sounded every day, making it impossible for children to attend their schools in person. To keep children in school, the city has set up the country's only "metro-schools," which run from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, shelter inside the city's metro stations. They are currently attended by 2,200 pupils.

Fuel depot set ablaze

"We feel like we're living sitting on pins and needles," said two babushkas, when asked as they ran their errands – it's an old Russian expression, explaining that serenity is impossible here. The latest major traumatic event was the fiery death of an entire family, the Putyatins, on the night of February 9, along with two of their neighbors. Pavlo, the youngest of the three children, was just 10 months old. Olga, the mother, was a prosecutor in Kharkiv. Two Russian-launched Shahed drones fell onto a fuel depot, which sprayed the flaming liquid downhill, encircling the houses with a ribbon of lava. It ended up in the Nemyshlya River and a municipal lake, where ducks died of oil poisoning.

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