On the 18th day of the war, the situation around Kharkiv was gradually calming down. The rocket and airplane attacks have decreased since March 7 when air defense within 10 minutes shot down two Russian airplanes. Since then, Russian attacks have become rather unsystematic, targeting the city’s northern and south-eastern outskirts with artillery. The population has access to all sorts of supplies including humanitarian aid. The city is accssible from the direction of Poltava and Dnipro.
Heavy battles are taking place in the south-eastern part of Kharkiv Oblast’ – the town of Izum that is half controlled by the Ukrainian army despite severe damages. Russian troops cannot cross the Siversky Donets river and thus attack Dripro as the major bridges were destroyed the first week of the war or are controlled by the Ukrainians. The strategic town of Chuhyiv is under full control by the Ukrainian army, yet access to the city has been recently restricted.
The safety of the nuclear reactor in the northern part of Kharkiv has been a matter of serious concern, yet no radiological leakage has been reported so far.
