Not even Independence Square in Kyiv, better known as Maidan, tells the story of Ukraine’s recent history as vividly as Freedom Square in Kharkiv, the country’s second city and a stronghold of its defence just 35km from the Russian border.
When Ukrainians filled Maidan in 2014 to demand a turn to the west and away from Moscow, pro-Kremlin locals and thugs bussed in from Russia beat up Maidan supporters on Freedom Square and briefly seized Kharkiv’s regional administration building, raising the Russian flag over its roof before being ousted by security forces.
When the revolution succeeded and Ukraine’s leaders fled to Moscow, the 20 metre statue of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that had towered over Freedom Square for 40 years was the biggest of hundreds of Soviet monuments to be toppled across Ukraine.
Lenin had stood with an arm outstretched towards the Kharkiv regional headquarters, which was hit with cruise missiles a week into Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and is now a windowless shell draped with patriotic banners.
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The city’s top hotel, the Kharkiv Palace, sits boarded up just off Freedom Square after it was struck by two ballistic missiles in January, and two months ago a Russian air strike on the square badly damaged the constructivist Derzhprom building, a soaring Kharkiv landmark that was dubbed “the first Soviet skyscraper” when it opened in 1928.
Freedom Square was always the focal point of Kharkiv’s festive season too, as locals and visitors came to see its main Christmas tree and illuminations and, even just weeks before the all-out war, skate on its temporary ice rink and visit its Christmas market.
Now, just like some school classrooms, rock concerts and theatre, opera and ballet performances, Kharkiv has moved at least part of its Christmas underground, and the city’s main tree stands on the platform of a working metro station beneath Freedom Square.
“Unfortunately, this has become a tradition since the beginning of the full-scale war,” said Andriy Kravchenko, a spokesman for Kharkiv’s nearby central park, where the six-metre artificial tree used to be displayed.
“We used the Christmas decorations that were in the central park to decorate the metro stations, and to at least somehow cheer up children and adults and comfort them at this difficult time,” he told local media.
Carol concerts and other performances are also being held in metro stations around the city, as above ground Kharkiv’s 1.3 million or so residents try to live as normally as possible despite daily missile, drone and bomb attacks.
“It’s strange of course and sad that we have to do it, but we are used to this kind of thing now – doing things underground and thinking about safety all the time,” says Kateryna, after taking photos of her young son by the tree and sending them to her husband, who is in an army unit near the front line. She declines to give her surname for security reasons.
“We have to make things as fun as possible for the children growing up in wartime. Their fathers are away from home, they’re hearing strange and bad news all the time.”
Kharkiv was a key target for Russia at the start of the full-scale war but, despite pummelling the city for months, its invasion force was driven away from the city and then out of the region in September 2022.
This year, however, Russian troops launched a new attack on border areas of Kharkiv region, seizing several villages, attacking the towns of Kupiansk and Vovchansk and trying to move their artillery within range of the city centre. While that effort continues, they continue to hit Kharkiv with ballistic missiles that strike only a minute or so after launch from across the border, and guided bombs that can weigh up to three tonnes.
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“No other major city in the country has suffered as much destruction as ours. Preliminary calculations put the damage at €10 billion,” Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said this month, adding that 160,000 city residents had lost their homes to shelling.
Outside the metro station on Freedom Square, a middle-aged woman in a long red coat and spectacles asks people to buy freshly baked bread from the large shopping bags in her hands. She offers quietly but becomes more vehement with those who stop to listen.
“It’s for the boys at the military hospital,” she says. “They’ve lost arms and legs and they need help. It’s as if the state doesn’t want them now, as if no one wants them. Please take a loaf of bread and give something for them.”