Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov believes his city is at risk of becoming "a second Aleppo" if left without help to obtain air defense systems, according to an article published by the Guardian on April 17.
Russia recently intensified attacks against Kharkiv, which had a population of 1.4 million in 2021, with the use of missiles, glide bombs, and drones, destroying energy infrastructure and killing civilians.
Terekhov said the U.S. Congress needs to pass the delayed $60 billion Ukraine aid package to ensure new supplies of air defense and "to prevent Kharkiv being a second Aleppo," referring to the city in Syria that was devastated by fighting during the Syrian Civil War.
The cost of rebuilding everything destroyed or damaged in the city has already reached more than $10 billion, Terekhov said earlier in April.
Western officials believe that while Russia lacks the capability to launch a fresh offensive on Kharkiv, Moscow is making a "coordinated effort to cut off supplies and create conditions that make the city uninhabitable, Bloomberg reported on April 16.
Bloomberg's report echoed Terekhov's remarks to The Economist that Russia aims to make the city uninhabitable for civilians.
At the end of March, Russia destroyed all the electrical substations in Kharkiv, leaving Ukraine's second-largest city without a stable power supply.
While Kharkiv is at particular risk because of its proximity to Russia, lying less than 30 kilometers from the border, stocks of air defense are low across Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on April 16 that Russia managed to destroy the Trypillia Thermal Power Plant in Kyiv Oblast in a missile strike on April 11 because Ukraine had run out of missiles for its defense.
Kateryna Denisova
(Updated: )
