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Igor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv: “The situation remains tense”

A metro station transformed into a shelter.

Kharkiv, March 26, 2022. AP - Felipe Dana

Text by: Vincent Souriau |

Sami Boukhelifa Follow

4 mins

Igor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, receives RFI in an undisclosed location, for security reasons.

He denounces a "genocide" inflicted on the Ukrainians by the Russian army, which continues to shell the north-eastern outskirts of the city in defiance of the civilian victims.  

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From our special envoys in Kharkiv,

RFI

: Ukraine has been at war for almost 40 days.

How is Kharkiv doing today

?

Igor Terekhov:

The situation remains tense since the shelling has never stopped since February 24.

They target both residential areas and infrastructure: power plants, thermal power plants, gas lines, water supply.

It's always extremely complicated.  

There's a lot of talk about random strikes, which can land anywhere in town.

Is this your feeling?

No, in terms of infrastructure in any case, these are targeted strikes.

To give you an idea, when they wanted to attack the electricity grid, they were able to destroy all of our distribution networks in a single day.

There are still explosions every day in residential areas…

Yes, according to our latest figures, there are more than 1,300 individual houses destroyed throughout the city.

What is the interest for the Russians to attack civilian homes

?

Why did they start waging war?

I am not in the head of the government or the Russian army… But for me, it is incomprehensible that they launched this war now, in the 21st century.

It is a pure and simple genocide which targets the Ukrainian people and the city of Kharkiv.

Igor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, at the microphone of RFI, April 1, 2022. © Sami Boukhelifa/RFI

What is the scale of population movements here since February 24?

Before the war, Kharkiv had a population of one and a half million.

Today, 30% of

these inhabitants have left

.

Families with children left first.

I was in one of the suburbs of Kharkiv just now, with those who remained and need humanitarian aid.

Generally, these are

people of a certain age

who have not left the city.

There are also many men of fighting age who have enlisted, either in the regular forces or in the territorial defense, who have gone to take up arms to defend the city.

You talk about humanitarian aid, do you still have means of supply?

Yes, we receive help through the government, we are also supported by the town halls of several Ukrainian cities and by foreign countries, which is very important for us.

And we are very sensitive to the efforts of Lille, in the north of France, our twin city, which wrote to our municipal council and which will designate us honorary citizens.

There is a huge problem for civilians whose homes have been destroyed

: they cannot find their property deeds, they have no place to sleep, they have taken refuge in metro stations.

From a legal point of view, are you able to help them

?

We follow the cadastre, we keep the register of destroyed housing, and we held a meeting on this subject today.

We will have to rebuild and rehabilitate as quickly as possible.

That's why we focus on prefabricated module construction projects.

When we have won this war against the Russians, we can put these modules in place in a few weeks so that people can return to a normal life.

And we will also use it for schools and hospitals.

To date, we have 70 schools, 60 crèches and 15 hospitals destroyed.

We don't have time to wait, we have to rethink everything, launch energy-efficient apartment buildings, with underground car parks, which can serve as air-raid shelters.

► Also to listen: Accents from Europe - Living under siege: from Sarajevo to the war in Ukraine

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