Consoled by her partner Yevgeniy Vlasenko and her mother Lyubov, Yana Bachek (52) cries over the body of her father Victor Gubarev (79), killed while buying bread during the shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities reported five people killed and a further 15 wounded in the city that day.
Russian forces began advancing towards Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, as soon as their full-scale invasion began on 24 February. Russia may have regarded Kharkiv, some 35 kilometers from the border, as an easy target due to its large number of Russian-speaking inhabitants; instead Russian forces were met with fierce resistance. Throughout March and April, the city was partially encircled and remained under heavy shelling. In May, Ukraine forced a Russian withdrawal from the immediate surroundings of Kharkiv, although much of provincial Kharkiv remained under Russian control throughout the summer, and shelling frequently reached the city. By 14 September, Ukrainian forces had regained control of the province.
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