Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
An update from my wife and her family, who are currently bunkered down in their apartment close to Kharkov.
A lot of the focus has been on Kyiv, and rightfully so. However a large battle is taking place for Kharkov as well, which is the 2nd largest city in Ukraine and largely Russian speaking.
All night she heard tanks rolling through, yelling from soldiers coming through the forested areas around them, and gunfire and explosions in the distance. There are now 6 of them bunkered down in their single room apartment.
Since they are close to the border, she said that a lot of soliders are coming through the forested areas and end up in her village. Most of them are very young soldiers with Chechan accents. They sometimes ask the people in the village for food, or how to get to Kharkov. The road to Kharkov is a couple minutes away, so they just go on their way once they see it.
Strangely enough, and I'm not sure if this is on purpose or just random, but none of them seem to have GPS or working cell phone signals. They ask the villagers where to go and say they have no signal. The village itself still has internet. I'm not sure if was done purposely to cut their signal if it's not a UA service provider trying to access their network (or if that is even possible). I just though it was weird that while the tanks are able to just follow the road to Kharkov, the soldiers on foot are getting lost in the forests are asking locals where to go, and the locals still have internet.
As mentioned, many are very young men who were told they were coming to do training, and told last minute they were to attack. Just goes to show how much Russian leaders think of their own soldiers. Disgusting leadership that hopefully will be swinging from the gallows one day.
Overall my wife and family are doing as well as can be. They are still trapped in the village and unable to leave, probably for a while now, before making an attempt to leave the country, however that may be. Some villagers tried to walk in the forest towards Kharkov, but ran into Russian troops who told them to go back, so as to not get in the line of fire. Personally with all the fighting going on in Kharkov and troops attempting to surround the city, I think the best bet is to just stay in the village, which is largely being left alone. There are no UA soldiers there. There is no resistance. For that reason, I think they are off the radar for the time being. Scary stuff though and while my anxiety is a little less today, I'm still on edge from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed, constantly in touch with my wife on the situation.
I will end this update by saying that I am well aware of the saying "loose lips sink ships". If there is anything in my posts that anyone with any kind of intelligence or military background thinks is inappropriate to post in the slim chance it might put someone in danger, please PM met and let me know. I won't be offended and will immediately edit any of my posts. I don't want to post any detailed locations or photos anymore for that reason, other than this is occurring near Kharkov. However I do know in this digital age that any posts on CP show up on Google, and already had a CP member recognize me on Reddit which is obviously a worldwide platform. I just want to give some updates on my wife's situation with her and her family, being they are in the NE region and their experiences.
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