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In a Ukrainian city on Russia’s doorstep, Putin’s plans stir deep worries and defiance

Activists in Kharkiv held a vigil on Feb. 22 to remember Ukraine’s war victims and pray for peace amid a new military escalation by Russia. (Video: Whitney Leaming, Lee Powell/The Washington Post, Photo: Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
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KHARKIV, Ukraine — About 50 miles from where Russian troops and tanks are massed, a group of Ukrainians put their hands over their hearts, held up flags and sang the country’s national anthem.

“Glory to Ukraine, glory to heroes,” they said in unison Tuesday, before adding a crude quip about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Activists in Kharkiv always meet on Feb. 22 — what they call Patriots’ Day — to commemorate the city’s stand against Ukraine’s ousted pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, who fled here eight years ago during the Maidan revolution that cemented Ukraine’s political bonds with the West. The day is also used to remember victims of the 2015 Kharkiv bombing, which took place during a rally to mark the anniversary of the uprising.

But this year’s demonstration was also an act of defiance just a day after Putin delivered a speech challenging Ukraine’s legitimacy as a sovereign state and recognized two Russian-backed separatist areas in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region as independent.

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Russian forces were promptly deployed to those territories for what a government declaration described as a “peacekeeping mission.”

“Everyone understands that a war has already been declared,” said Voloymyr Chistilin, one of the organizers of Patriots’ Day in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city after the capital, Kyiv. “And this is a critical, decisive moment.”

Kharkiv is a 45-minute drive from the Russian border. But as the country’s east has been embroiled in a draining, eight-year conflict between Ukrainian government troops and Russian-backed separatists, it has been comfortably far from fighting despite its proximity to Russia.

Now, it could border a Russian military presence on two sides. With Putin’s recognition of the separatist areas — including their self-declared borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions that the Ukrainian military currently controls — the front line is in danger of moving to Kharkiv’s southern edge if Russian forces help separatists claim that wider territory.

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Meanwhile, Russian troops and hardware are posted to the city’s east, just across the countries’ border. U.S. officials have warned that Putin could be planning a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that’s not limited to the Donbas region. In that event, Kharkiv is considered a likely target because of its location and majority-Russian-speaking population.

But life in Kharkiv looked surprisingly normal even as Ukraine absorbed Russia’s latest move against the country.

The downtown mall in Kharkiv was bustling, grocery stores were stocked, a newlywed couple posed for photos, and the streets were filled with people on their way to and from work — as if Ukrainians don’t want to give Putin the satisfaction of disturbing daily life even as public concern over a potential Russian military attack grows.

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Evgenia Tsegonko, a 61-year-old Kharkiv native, said she listened to Putin’s hour-long speech in its entirety. Like many other Ukrainians, she was outraged by what she heard, specifically his statement that “modern Ukraine was entirely and fully created by Russia.”

“I just thought that this is not a normal person and what he was saying doesn’t correspond to reality at all,” she said. “What he said violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

“We’re being attacked and there’s a feeling bloodshed, on this side and that one, will follow,” Tsegonko added. “Of course no one wants that.”

About 160 miles southeast of Kharkiv, Putin’s Monday night address recognizing the separatist-held territories pushed one family to accelerate packing to possibly evacuate.

Yuri and Svetlana Pechenii run a foster home with eight children in Zolote, a village that borders the separatist-controlled territory and faces occasional shelling from Russian-backed forces. Their home neighbors a Ukrainian military battalion headquarters. If Russian forces move out of the separatists’ areas, places such as Zolote could be quickly engulfed.

The booming thuds of artillery outside of their windows on Sunday prompted the family of 10 and their two dogs to huddle together in the kitchen. The children stopped procrastinating and packed their most essential possessions in case they need to leave the area quickly.

“We’ll be here until the last second,” Svetlana said on Monday. “We’re just going to hope that everything will be fine.”

By Monday night, Putin’s speech and the Russian push into eastern Ukraine changed their calculus. The family has a 19-year-old bus ready to hit the road, but they are still deciding where to go. The Pecheniis have also applied for all of the children to have passports — in case the only safe place is abroad.

In the trenches, where the Ukrainian military has reported a tenfold increase of shelling in recent days, one soldier said in a text message that his battalion is now on high alert — prepared to quickly shift locations if there’s an attempt to breach the existing demarcation line.

That sense of urgency hasn’t reached Kharkiv. Several people said they didn’t bother listening to Putin’s speech — or packing an emergency bag. Others said that his recognition of the separatist areas didn’t change anything for them. Ukrainians have long considered the forces there to be Russian proxies with Moscow-provided weaponry.

As for the Russian troops posted in Belgorod, Russia, just 90 minutes from Kharkiv, Oleksii Marichev, a wine-seller, said: “If they wanted to come in, they’d be here.”

He then snapped his fingers to demonstrate how quickly a possible invasion could occur.

“I’m not afraid,” Marichev said. “Look around. This city is living.”

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