Letter From Kharkiv: Today Is Six Months Since Armed Forces Of The Russian Federation Invaded Territory Of Ukraine- And Invaded Further Into Previously-Occupied Territory Of Ukraine
I first traveled eight hours by train from the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, to the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, in the afternoon of 23 February 2022.
The center of Kharkiv is approximately thirty miles from the northeast border of Ukraine with the Russian Federation and both the city and its northern areas were the first attacked at 5:45 am on 24 February 2022 by the armed forces of the Russian Federation at the direction of the government of the Russian Federation.
21 August 2022
I returned to Kharkiv the evening of 22 August 2022 with intention to remain until at least 25 August 2022.
Train No. 724 departs Kyiv precisely at 1:20 pm and arrives near-precisely at 8:12 pm to Kharkiv. There is a 7:00 pm to 7:00 am curfew. The train carriages are 10% to 15% occupied. Not surprising given that the center of Kharkiv is approximately thirty miles from Ukraine border with the Russian Federation and both the city and its northern areas were the first attacked in the early morning of 24 February 2022. The snack bar (with a coffee machine) on the train is operating. A woman continues to visit each carriage multiple times to collect debris clean.
The train station in Kharkiv is quiet, even with the arriving train. The arriving passengers quickly exit the station to walk home or remain overnight at the train station. There are approximately one hundred-fifty people standing and sitting outside of the train station, mostly waiting to depart Kharkiv.
Having a pass permits the driver of a vehicle to operate after curfew. If a passenger is arriving from or traveling to the train station, recommended to have available ticket and identification documents- and have them in plain view- no reaching into a duffle, glove compartment, under a jacket. Regardless, little time to waste. Roadblocks. Checkpoints. Nervous soldiers. Past sunset, yet the essence of the remaining light creates an earie palate… There are no lights in buildings- not even apartment buildings. Estimates are that more than 50% of the population of Kharkiv have departed since 24 February 2022. The vehicles quickly enter the underground garage, then elevator to the lobby. The front doors of the hotel remain covered with plywood.
Instrumental music in the lobby, it is faint, but noticeable and welcoming. There are two members of the staff at the front desk. Housekeeping continues. Laundry continues. Breakfast, rather than in the second-floor restaurant (which in normal times is an exceptional buffet), will be delivered to the room (image of the first morning’s feast, which was repeated the second morning) at the desired time, as will lunch and dinner. Walking about the second-floor restaurant, napkins remain on the table, cereal remains in the container, teas remain ready to pour… a toaster light is illuminated. COVID-19 masks are for the taking. These are the dining options and first morning arrival:
Reimagine Xanadu, the palatial residence of Charles Foster Kaine in the 1941-released motion picture “Citizen Kane”
Specifically, that you are among two guests in a 171-room, eleven-floor, five-well-deserved star Kharkiv Palace Hotel. NOTE: defining a five-star hotel… when the hotel operates only absent the spa for two guests. “The Shining” hotel absent guests and particularly absent Jack Nicholson, interior violence, and snow…
Have taken multiple self-guided tours of the property… alone. With every tour, a new find… A treasure hunt where success is measured by objects and sightings new.
22 August 2022
A blustery day in Kharkiv…. About 90 degrees Fahrenheit with wind gusts to twenty mph. Leaves have fallen from trees within the parks. From a window looking outward, the date could have been the beginning of fall…
Exchange rate in Kharkiv is 41.50 per US$1.00. In Kyiv, 40.00 per US$1.00.
At 12:03 pm to the north of Kharkiv heard incoming and outgoing ordinance. At 12:20 pm, there was another series of sounds nearer to the center of Kharkiv. At 12:33 pm there was a series of sounds nearer still to the center of Kharkiv. Then, silence. Shared that if the ordinance impacts within one kilometer, the result will be a vibration of the hotel structure.
World Central Kitchen (created by Jose Andres) location in Kharkiv two months ago was creating and distributing 10,000 meals in a single day. This location will cease operation in September 2022.
The Red Cross is distributing food products to citizens of Kharkiv. The line is nearing one hundred meters in length. Guests receive meat, vegetables, and sweets. Terrific that the organization is here; tragic that there is a need for what they do…
Throughout Kharkiv, there are areas of normally and areas of what is expected. Some stores are open- shoes (quite a few), apparel (Italian and Ukrainian designs), pharmacies, gymnasiums, Roshen candy shops, car washes, fast food (Neither McDonald’s nor KFC), and coffee shops- lots of them. In Kyiv, there are streets, boulevards, where every other retail outlet is a coffee shop; Aroma Kava is particularly ubiquitous. City of Kharkiv employees continue their tasks- emptying trash cans, sweeping parks and streets, blowing leaves, cleaning debris from fountains, painting signposts and railings. And there are buildings- residential, commercial, government which remain unoccupied, cratered, pockmarked, windows blown out and glass remaining on the sidewalk below… What is known- these businesses will re-open, and these buildings will be again occupied and functioning….
8:44 pm nearby sound of shelling impact accompanied by air raid siren. Two others more distant from Kharkiv. Opposite of afternoon’s shelling.
24 August 2022
Near and after midnight, impacts in two districts in Kharkiv, Shevchenkivs’kyi and Novobavarsky.
Unknown is what today will bring about: Six-months since the invasion commenced and the war began, and the 31st Anniversary of the independence of Ukraine from the then-U.S.S.R.
Alarm set for 5:45 am- the same time that the first shelling of Kharkiv commenced on 24 February 2022.
Not a cloud in the sky….
Air raid alerts arrive by text message to all cellular devices.
6:07 am, the first air raid alert.
9:01 am, one thud. No air raid alert.
10:00 am, three thuds. Air raid alert.
10:14 am. Air raid alert
10:50 am. Air raid alert.
12:14 pm. Air raid alert.
11:00 am in the lobby of the hotel are the sounds from a piano…. The lobby remains devoid of interior lighting. A few recessed light fixtures are illuminated; the only other light is what can seep through the window coverings- paper.
White baby grand piano situated in the center of the seating areas. The music amplified by the 11-story atrium of the hotel. The performer- an officer of the area battalion visiting a friend who is one of now three guests in the hotel. His other life: a grain exporter whose company had approximately 2,000 employees and managed the export annually of more than one million tons of commodities. His mother, a piano instructor, taught him while in-and-out of quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Near the hotel, his office building impacted by a projectile. No one injured. The impromptu concert continues past 11:32 pm…
In the lobby, instrumental music again absent the piano…. Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” followed The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony”
2:00 pm in Kharkiv…. Sending note….
25 August 2022
Scheduled to depart Kharkiv for Kyiv
Images of Kyiv 20 August 2022 to 22 August 2022
The city of Kyiv is not unlike other cities in Ukraine or for that matter not unlike cities in other conflict zones. There are pockets, areas of normally- or at least a perception of normally or a desperately seeking a perception of normally. Getting coffee with friends- or alone just because it is possible. Having a beer with friends. Enjoying lunch al fresco. Grocery shopping. Enjoying a cup of very dark and rich cocoa- along with an inspiring (and appropriate) note. Taking children to enjoy a walk in a park, ride their bikes, scooters- anything to help calm them from the stresses of a pandemic and then a startling acclimation to the impacts that a war brings to everyone.
On 20 August 2022, cranes delivered remnants of equipment previously-owned by the armed forces of the Russian Federation for display along the main thoroughfare of Kyiv in preparation for 24 February 2022- the twofold recognition of Ukraine Independence Day (31 years since emancipation as one of the fifteen republics of the then-U.S.S.R.) and six-months since the armed forces of the Russian Federation invaded and further invaded territory of Ukraine.
Young women posed atop vehicles. Painters decorated tank traps. Although expected to re-open, two McDonald’s restaurants remain closed, as does a KFC and Turkish restaurant. A vehicle is towed from its parking space… that is an example of continuity of government.
The chef at the Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv with their inspiration for a nouvelle version of the classic Chicken Kiev (Kyiv) and a pork-filled dumpling with accompanying sour cream. Outstanding. With an occupancy of approximately rate nudging double digits, the hotel is the only property in Kyiv that remains at five-star levels of service. An astonishing effort required by an accomplished, polished, staff and management.
HISTORICAL NOTE: Both Ukraine and then-the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (today Belarus) were in 1945 included as separate members of the United Nations apart from the then-U.S.S.R. as a compromise to the government of the then-U.S.S.R. seeking membership for each of the fifteen republics of the U.S.S.R. The United States countered that it would request all then-forty-eight states to be members. The Russian Federation, as successor to the U.S.S.R., retained a seat in the United Nations General Assembly and a permanent seat on the five-member (China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States) Security Council.
