The Defenders of Kharkiv: The Frontline

TVN Discovery | 29min

Postproduction script

 

 

 

[00:01  ON SCREEN TEXT

source: youtube.com/Sono Adeel]

 

00:03   NARRATOR

Since the beginning of the war, the Russian invaders have been relentlessly bombarding Kharkiv, a city with one and a half million inhabitants. Rockets and bombs continue falling on town districts, streets and squares. Civilians are dying: children, women and elder people.

 

[00:05  ON SCREEN TEXT

source: Twitter @nexta_tv

 

00:11   ON SCREEN TEXT

source: nazaryan24

 

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source: Twitter @SESU_UA]

 

00:17   ON SCREEN TEXT

source: Telegram Dmytro Zmyvytskyy]

 

00:18   NARRATOR

The Russians want to take the city in order to move further south and cut off Ukrainian forces fighting in the east of the country. But the defending Ukrainian soldiers are putting up fierce and effective resistance. The battle for Kharkiv has not yet been decided.

 

[00:21  ON SCREEN TEXT

source: Twitter @nexta_tv

 

00:22   ON SCREEN TEXT

source: Twitter @Contactupn]

 

00:35   TITLE

THE DEFENDERS OF KHARKIV. ON THE FRONTLINE

 

00:45   NARRATOR

We drive through endless blocks of flats. Kharkiv is the second most populous city in Ukraine, a strategic industrial centre and an important transport hub. We arrive at Severnaya Saltovka. This is a residential area on the north-eastern outskirts of the city. It has been under constant attack by Russian troops since the first days of the war. We are meeting with an officer, the commander of a small unit defending a housing estate made up of tower blocks. We ask him to show us around his area.

 

01:21   VOLODYA

And what is your name, brother?

 

01:22   MICHAŁ

Michał [meehau]

 

01:23   VOLODYA

Misha, yes?

 

01:24   MICHAŁ

Yes. And what is your name?

 

01:29   VOLODYA

Volodya.

 

01:30   MICHAŁ

It’s a pleasure to meet you. 

 

01:33   NARRATOR

Ukrainian armoured personnel carriers and a cannon are set up between these buildings. The tall buildings provide safe cover. A fortnight ago, the Russians tried to demolish this housing estate.

 

01:45   MICHAŁ

Oh my God, there are civilian buildings here

 

01:49   VOLODYA

Well, yes...

 

01:50   MICHAŁ

What were they shooting at?

 

01:52   VOLODYA

A bomb dropped here, a half-ton son of a bitch.

 

01:56   MICHAŁ

It is, after all, an apartment building. A flat.

 

01:59   VOLODYA

Yes, people spent half their lives saving money to buy apartments here…

 

02:05   MICHAŁ

Oh my God.

 

02:06   NARRATOR

Severnaya Saltovka is being shelled incessantly. Every day there are dozens of attacks. In spite of this, people still live in some of these flats.

 

02:18   MICHAŁ

Are you not afraid?

 

02:20   WOMAN IN WINDOW

Not any more. After what happened to that building, I am no longer afraid of anything. I was afraid when the bomb was in the air.

 

02:27   MAN 1

Good morning, Madam.

 

02:28   WOMAN IN WINDOW

Good morning.

 

02:29   MAN 1

How are you?

 

02:30   WOMAN IN WINDOW

Well, the most important thing is that they don't fire. 

 

02:35   MICHAŁ

Something is coming.

 

02:36   VOLODYA

Let’s go.

 

02:40   NARRATOR

The shelling intensifies. We hide in the building of a car wash. The offices have been abandoned in a great hurry as evidenced by leftover coffee in cups and documents on tables. From the windows we can see the front line.

 

02:55   VOLODYA

It’s close by. You can see it from here. Take a look. Where the smoke is.

 

03:05   MICHAŁ

I can see it.

 

03:06   VOLODYA

You will see more soon. One, two. Over there, that faint smoke.

 

03:10   MICHAŁ

Yes, I can see it. Let’s hope they don’t shoot at us.

 

03:15   VOLODYA

I have three wounds and two injuries. They haven’t managed to kill me in eight years, they won't kill me now either. 

 

03:22   MICHAL

Why eight years? Were you in Donbas before this?

 

03:25   VOLODYA

Yes. I took part in the Debaltsev Kettle.

 

03:28   MICHAŁ

In the Debaltsev Kettle?

 

03:30   VOLODYA

Yes.

 

03:33   NARRATOR

The Battle of Debaltsev is the biggest defeat of the Ukrainian army in the 2015 Donbas War. More than 260 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the fighting.

 

03:45   MICHAŁ

What is the scariest thing about war?

 

03:50   VOLODYA

The scariest and most unpleasant thing is gathering the bodies of your enemies and your own from the battlefield.

 

03:58   MICHAŁ

Did you collect bodies?

 

03:59   VOLODYA

Yes.

 

[04:01  ON SCREEN TEXT

source: Twitter @nexta_tv]

 

04:03   NARRATOR

In 2022, the Ukrainian army has proved to be much stronger than seven years ago. It has been defending itself for over three weeks, inflicting massive losses on the Russians.

 

04:16   MICHAŁ

What is your main goal now? Not to let them enter the city or what?

 

04:25   VOLODYA

My main objective is to follow my orders, which are not to let the Russians into the city. And to inflict as much damage on them as possible. We didn't want them here... They are attacking our positions.

 

04:41   MICHAŁ

The building trembled.

 

04:43   VOLODYA

We cannot let them into town. Why have they come here? [04:47] I would like to tell the Russian soldiers to go home and not to bother us any more. Either captivity or death awaits you here. You will be feeding yourselves to the worms back in Mother Russia. Go home.

 

04:56   NARRATOR

For the time being no explosions can be heard. We move on. Although the district is under military control, from time to time we meet civilian passerbys.

05:06   MICHAŁ

Do you live here?

 

05:07   WOMAN 1

Yes. We do.

 

05:08   MICHAŁ

And why did you not leave?

 

05:10   WOMAN 1

And where should we go?

05:12   MICHAŁ

But here...

 

05:14   WOMAN 1

We have nowhere to go. And we have nothing to leave in.

 

05:15   WOMAN 2

Don’t you worry...

 

05:20   MICHAŁ

What if we drove you now to South Station?

 

05:22   WOMAN 2      

And where are they waiting for us?

 

05:25   MICHAŁ

You can go to Kiev and then to Poland.

 

05:26   WOMAN 2

Tell us who is waiting for us there.

 

05:29   MICHAŁ

Poles help a lot.

 

05:31   WOMAN 2

Who? Maybe for a month, two, three, and then what?

 

05:33   MICHAŁ

You can come back.

 

05:35   WOMAN 2

If we move, we will never return.

 

05:40   NARRATOR

We reach a makeshift shelter in the basement of one of the blocks of flats. It is here that the soldiers and other residents of the housing estate hide from Russian shelling. For a while it gets calmer, so we stand outside.

 

 

05:53   MICHAŁ

Why did you not evacuate your family to Poland, for example?

 

06:00   VOLODYA

Why would I? This is our home, this is where we were born.

 

06:02   MICHAŁ

Do you have children?

 

06:03   VOLODYA

Two

 

06:04   MICHAŁ

Are you fighting for them?

 

06:06   VOLODYA

Of course. for whom else? If there is peace at home, we are also at peace.

 

06:15   NARRATOR

Suddenly artillery fire starts. We head down to the shelter.

 

06:24   VOLODYA

To the shelter! This is all very close.

 

06:39   MICHAŁ

You need to keep close to the wall. (06:46) Is it often like this?

 

06:48   VOLODYA

Always.

 

06:50   MICHAŁ

At night too?

 

06:52   SOLDIER 1

Yes.

 

06:56   NARRATOR

The housing complex has been almost completely destroyed. Windows have fallen out along with their frames, and it is freezing inside the buildings. The Russians who bombarded this place could have had no doubt that the target was a group of flats full of civilians, including women and children. This is undoubtedly a war crime.

 

07:18   VOLODYA

This is where it flew in. You can see it caught the tiles on the roof. There's only one left. Two were ripped off. And that's where they dropped the bomb. The whole house has been blown apart.

 

07:35   MICHAŁ

Because of that one shelling?

 

07:38   VOLODYA

Yes, it's all from one bomb. (07:41) Looks like is was from a 500 bomb. [FAB-500 bomb? – trans.]

 

07:42   MICHAŁ

From a half a tonne bomb?

 

07:43   VOLODYA

Yes.

 

07:50   MICHAŁ

All right, take care, guys. I'm heading back to my crew.

 

07:56   SOLDIER 2

Thank you, Poles. Thank you for your support and for having accepted our loved ones as refugees. Thank you.

 

08:06   NARRATOR

We meet an elderly man in front of one of the blocks of flats. Mr Leonid did not manage to leave in time. We offer him a lift to where the evacuation trains leave from.

 

08:16   LEONID

I no longer have anything.

 

08:18   MICHAŁ

Do you have anything to eat?

 

08:20   LEONID

A neighbour gave me food, but it’s already run out. I wanted to leave. There isn’t anyone left I didn’t try to call!

 

08:25   REPORTER

And you want to leave, yes?

 

08:27   LEONID

Very much so! Even right now!

 

08:28   REPORTER

We can take you with us.

 

08:29   MICHAŁ

Take your things, your documents...

 

08:31   REPORTER

You can leave with us right away.

 

08:35   LEONID

To South Station, right?

 

08:36   REPORTER

We will take you somewhere.

 

08:39   MICHAŁ

Come on, quickly.

08:42   NARRATOR

Together with Mr Leonid we go to the shelter. The elderly man tells us his story. For almost three weeks he vegetated in his flat. Despite the cold, lack of electricity and food, he managed to survive. Because of the shelling, he was afraid to flee on foot.

 

09:00   LEONID

I have been left alone, I have been alone here for eighteen days now, on the ninth floor. I think I should leave too. You can go crazy because of all this... Listening to explosions all day and night.

 

09:21   MICHAŁ

And where do you intend to go to?

 

09:23   LEONID

I will take the train to Poltava. My sister lives there. She says it is calmer there than in Kharkiv.

 

09:31   MICHAŁ

And your wife?

 

09:33   LEONID

She died.

 

09:37   MICHAŁ

Long ago?

 

09:43   LEONID

We lived for 50 years…

 

09:45   MICHAŁ

Together?

 

09:51   MICHAŁ

Did you live in Kharkiv?

 

09:52   LEONID

Yes.

 

09:57   NARRATOR

When the shelling temporarily quietens down we drive away from Severnaya Saltovka, Mr. Leonid leaves his housing complex for the first time since the fighting broke out. He is surprised that somewhere in Kharkiv a seemingly normal life is going on.

 

10:11   LEONID

I see a normal town before me. Life goes on here, cars drive, people walk. It’s as if i was in a different city.

 

10:24   MICHAŁ

All of this frightens us. There is glass everywhere. Buildings lie in ruins.

 

10:31   LEONID

I saw a woman walking by, I don't know if she was going home, but she was carrying some food and toys in a plastic bag. I was standing in the stairwell at the time because my phone was charging. A moment later I heard an explosion, I think a piece of shrapnel hit her directly. The woman fell to the ground, she was covered in blood. The soldiers helped her, loaded her into a car and drove her to hospital. I do not know what happened to her next.

 

11:05   MICHAŁ

Could you tell us what life was like in Kharkiv before the war?

 

11:11   LEONID

It was normal.

 

11:15   MICHAŁ

What does this mean?

 

11:16   LEONID

I mean it was peaceful. We did not have any problems. Everything was fine. I had a summer house nearby. I used to go there often... And what’s this?

 

11:33   REPORTER

I don’t know.

 

11:34   LEONID

I think it’s a queue for bread. We’re driving past a bakery.

 

11:40   REPORTER

Is this a bakery?

 

11:41   LEONID

Yes, a large bakery produces bread here on a mass scale. People are queueing up to buy bread.

 

13:01   NARRATOR

We reach the centre of Kharkiv. The city is heavily devastated, it is difficult to find a building that has not been hit by a Russian rocket. The aggressors shelled squares and streets full of people. Terrorised residents have taken refuge in metro stations. Many of them have been living there for more than three weeks. They know that going to the surface could end in death.

 

13:31   MICHAŁ

Have you thought about leaving?

 

13:36   WOMAN 3

No. I cannot leave this place. My parents' graves are here. My relatives live here. No. My son used to visit you. We have a lot of friends in Poland. As I said, my great-grandfather was Polish, I have Polish roots. Distant ones, but I do have Polish roots.

 

14:02   WOMAN 4

I am Ukrainian. My mother is Russian. My husband is Ukrainian. We have family in Kursk, and so what? We had very good relations. We also have family in Kiev. What has he done, this monster? After each day you wonder if you still have a home. There are old people left there, animals. Those who stayed at home because they can't get to the metro are dying from the bombing. All because of this "liberator" who came to free us. We Ukrainians have never received anything good from these Russians.

 

14:55   MICHAŁ

Milana, how old are you? Three?

 

14:59   MILANA

Yes.

 

15:01   MICHAŁ

Do you like it here?

 

15:03   MILANA

Yes.

 

15:05   MICHAŁ

And did you enjoy it at home too?

 

15:08   MILANA

Yes, but now there is war in the street.

 

15:11   MICHAŁ

War in the street?

 

15:13   MILANA

Yes. We are to go to another house and there will be other people there.

 

15:32   WOMAN 5 (MIEDIEDEVA)

They are bombing people just like them. After all, not everyone here is Ukrainian. My mother is Ukrainian and my father is Russian. I am both Russian and Ukrainian. Putin says he is defending the Russians. But from whom? From ourselves? Or from his fascism? Let him come and see how people live. This is not life. This is a pigsty. Pigs have better conditions than we have now. But we are prepared to put up with it all. If only there was a light at the end of the tunnel [as in hope – trans.]. But there is no such light...

 

16:03   WOMAN 6

At some point we all became homeless.

 

16:07   WOMAN 5 (MIEDIEDEVA)

We’ve lost everything. They tell us: Please be patient, Kharkiv will rebuild. Our optimism is gone, we are on the brink. [16:21] Putin, if you hear me, may blue hellfire engulf you! My name is Miedviedeva, a Russian. May you burn in hell!

 

16:37   WOMAN 7

Tiny babies shiver, they react to even the slightest rustle. Pregnant women have premature births, they are taken away from here, but births should not begin like this, so prematurely. These are the tears of women and mothers. I want people all around the world to spread all these videos straight away so that everyone knows. Russia is propagating a lie, lying to the nation, to society. Their sons are dying for nothing. For nothing, do you understand? For Putin's want of money! Let Russia know what their ruler is doing.

 

17:27   SOLDIER 2

Watch your step so that you don't step on shrapnel or nails and get hurt. [17:35] This is shrapnel from a missile. It was an air strike.

 

17:44   SOLDIER 3

This is part of a bomb. Shrapnel. Heavy. [17:51] Look at the concrete. Completely blown away. [18:00] More or less, from east to west. That was it’s trajectory. Here one, there the second and third. The fourth one hit this hangar, all this equipment has been destroyed.  [18:17] Let’s move on.

 

18:18   MICHAŁ

A shockwave can kill too, can't it?

 

18:20   SOLDIER 3

Sure. You can imagine the scale of impact if even the equipment has been destroyed.

 

18:31   NARRATOR

We are in Okhtyrka. The Russian troops must capture it in order to encircle and imprison the defenders of Kharkiv. But the Ukrainian soldiers defending the town are successfully repelling the invaders.

 

18:50   SOLDIERS

Quickly, quickly.

 

18:56   NARRATOR

We hear an explosion. We have to enter a makeshift shelter.

 

19:01   MICHAŁ

And what did they hit it with? Grad artillery?

 

 

 

19:05   SOLDIER 4

I don't know what it was.  It was probably Grad artillery [BM-21 Grad – trans.], but it’s somewhere far away. Our guys are firing, I just don't know where from. [19:18] Yesterday those of us with the major broke up a convoy. They destroyed 15 cars. And their tank!

 

19:22   SOLDIER 5

Theirs? 

 

19:23   SOLDIER 4

Yes.

 

19:25   SOLDIER 5

Awesome.

 

19:30   SOLDIER 6 (could be the same as 5)

The first days were a real shock, so much was happening... We were still afraid that "Kadyrovites" would appear.

 

19:39   MICHAŁ

To be honest, we thought Okhtyrka was gone. Because they said so. They really do. [19:46] Thirty aerial bombs?

 

19:36   SOLDIER 6

After twenty we stopped counting.

 

19:47   MICHAŁ

Is it always like this?

 

19:49   SOLDIER 6

With breaks, ten-fifteen minutes.

 

19:54   SOLDIER 4

They wanted to sow panic so that people would flee, retreat from their positions, abandon their military positions, run away from their land… Fear is now contagious.

 

20:16   NARRATOR

Cluster shells, which are banned by the Geneva Convention, fall on Okhtyrka. They shatter into hundreds of deadly fragments, spreading death and destruction within a radius of hundreds of metres.

 

20:18   MICHAŁ

And why is the glass broken? What happened to the nursery?

 

20:25   MAN 2

Grad bombs.

 

20:28   SOLDIER 7

See, here is one cluster shell, here is another.  [20:30] I will show the grads. Come on. 

 

20:34   MICHAŁ

Is this a cluster shell ?

 

20:35 MAN 3  [NOT VISIBLE]

Yes.

 

20:37   SOLDIER 7

These are all over the city. 

 

20:40   MAN 3

They hit us with these on the first day.

 

20:41   SOLDIER 7

It has been lying here since day one. They are lying all over the city. [20:48] Around the kindergarten everything looks like this.

 

20:49   MICHAŁ

And this is a kindergarten?

 

20:51   SOLDIER 7

Yes. 

 

20:56   NARRATOR

We meet up with the mayor of the town, who helps us understand the situation of the defending Okhtyrka.

 

21:01   MAYOR

They are destroying our town, killing civilians. Even today several people were killed during a night-time bombardment. They are not human beings, we call them 'orcs' because that is what they are. They are killing civilians. We can defend ourselves and we are already defeating them.

 

21:24   REPORTER

How many people in total died in Okhtyrka?

 

21:26   MAYOR

I can’t answer that. A lot. We will give you the figures once we win. [21:34] Let’s go, we will show you everything.

 

21:36   REPORTER

What is the situation in general?

 

21:39   MAYOR

They keep firing, they bomb us every night. The bombs are the worst. [20:45] We’re heading out.

 

21:46   MICHAŁ

We will follow you.

 

21:50   NARRATOR

Engineer Ruslan Pytko joins us. He is a soldier of the local Territorial Defence. He fights and helps people in the destroyed city. He leads a group of volunteers who dig people out from under the rubble.

 

22:06   RUSLAN

I am from Okhtyrka. My wife is here for now, my daughter was in Kiev, but she left. Today we have a lot of work, about twenty people work under me. We’ve been to private houses destroyed by bombs. I was there and saw the dead under the rubble. [21:31] Even when I myself was under the rubble, I didn't feel as bad as I do now, after seeing those people… A whole housing estate was destroyed. They knew who they were shooting at, when they dropped bombs. They also knew what they were going to hit, when they used machine guns they also knew. They shot from that building in that direction. People ran there to hide from the the Grad bombs, the "hail" [Grad as in Grad artillery means "hail" – trans.]. And they started shooting at them with machine guns. It was really terrible. Such things can not to be forgiven.

 

23:04   NARRATOR

Together with the mayor we watch the aftermath of the destruction caused by another weapon used by the Russians. Here the aggressors dropped a vacuum bomb. It sucks the oxygen out of a huge area, killing and destroying everything within a radius of many metres. The bomb literally sucks the air out of human lungs and incinerates the victims.

 

23:26   MAYOR

Here, shoot this. This piece of rail flew one hundred metres and slammed into this tree so hard. This is all from that vacuum bomb explosion. [23:41] They wanted to completely destroy the city. They thought that if there was no heating in the city, the inhabitants would fall to their knees and say: Putin, save us! But we say: Putin - die! [23:56] We have been digging for three days. We still haven't found three people. 

 

24:00   RUSLAN

They shot with a large calibre at that building when people were clearing out rubble. I was shocked. I can’t fathom it. They are no longer men, they are beasts. I understand if they drop bombs when the cannot see. But when you shoot with a machine gun, you see the people! Through the crosshair you can see who your are shooting at. You have to understand, volunteers were already cleaning up the rubble, when they were shot at with a large-calibre machine gun.

 

24:31   MICHAŁ

I found out that you were previously a surgeon.

 

24:33   MAYOR

I am still.

 

24:35   MICHAŁ

Before it all started did you still perform surgeries?

 

24:42   MAYOR

Yes. I am still performing them. I have not stopped operating. I still carry out complicated operations.

 

24:51   MICHAŁ

Do you have a family?

 

24:52   MAYOR

Of course.

 

24:55   MICHAŁ

And where are your children?

 

24:57   MAYOR

I am not going to talk about that. They are here. In our country. In Ukraine. [25:07] People are forced to be in the cold, hungry, without water, without food. This is what they do… And who acted like this? This is what Stalin did. This is how he destroyed our people.

 

25:26   MICHAŁ

How many degrees is it at night?

 

25:28   MAYOR

Once it hit minus seventeen.

 

25:36   RUSLAN

When I came drove by here today, I almost cried. Maybe because I was already tired, or maybe because of what I saw. There are no strategic points here, people were living here peacefully. And I saw these two dead women... It's very difficult. I wanted to cry.  After what I saw I feel like taking a gun and heading straight to Moscow. There is no other way out.

 

26:07   MAYOR

Around eight or nine PM this area was bombed. Two elderly women were killed. Both were hiding in the basement. One of the bombs fell directly into the basement and exploded there. One of these women was here literally for one day. She came from the village to pack her things and she died here yesterday.

 

26:40   MICHAŁ

What was that building?

 

26:41   MAYOR

The Okhtyrka railway station. [26:46] This is the work of executioners, not people, murderers, not just Putinists. Those who drop bombs on us are murderers, hardened criminals, thugs.

 

27:06   MICHAŁ

This is just hell.

 

27:08   MAYOR

This is not hell yet. I will show you hell next.

 

27:18   MICHAŁ

Please tell us how many victims you’ve seen?

 

27:22   RUSLAN

I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to talk about it out loud.

 

27:29   MICHAŁ

How did you manage to get out of here?

 

27:31   RUSLAN

We were in a shelter.  People came out, they were pulled out one by one. When they pulled out the thirteenth person, I was so happy that everyone was okay. Albeit wounded, at least they were alive. We were shining flashlights... There was dust everywhere, you couldn't see anything. I turned on a flashlight, a powerful one. I turned it on and they came out, heading towards the light. From that side. They got out there. Here, from under the rubble. Thirteen people.

 

28:02   NARRATOR

We meet a woman who did not want to leave her home town. She is one of several hundred people in Okhtyrka who preferred to stay, to help others and to support the army.

 

28:17   REPORTER

Where do you work?

 

28:18   KATYUSHA

I am a chemical analysis laboratory technician.

 

28:23   MICHAŁ

Before the war, yes?

 

28:24   KATYUSHA

What do you mean before the war? I still work, every day, I have no days off. I'm at work in the morning, then we take people out, and at night we sew stuff for the boys. At least it's not boring! There is no time to be depressed. [28:41] The middle son is still traumatised by these explosions. The child wakes up at night, screaming, crying. It’s very tough. What can I say? The city is dying. In front of our eyes. They are killing the city. We work for the community, we want the city to survive.  So that the children have a place to return to. I entered a stairwell, and there was blood there. Terrible. [29:11] Today I buried a young boy, a good guy, he tuned pianos. Our Sergei. Ten minutes wouldn’t be enough to list all the dead and wounded. I am ready to die for Ukraine. I am ready to give my life for the future of my children. I am not afraid. We will fight. For our Okhtyrka, for our Ukraine. To the very end.

 

29:44   RUSLAN

Don't cry, Katyusha. We will win anyway.