Kharkiv may face the fate of Syria's Aleppo, which was heavily bombed by Russian and Syrian government forces a decade ago. This will happen if the United States does not make a decision on military aid to Ukraine.
This statement was made by the Mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, commenting on the situation in the city for The Guardian.
According to him, such a development awaits Kharkiv if the United States does not approve military aid to Ukraine, which would allow it to receive increased air defense to protect against Russian long-range attacks.
He noted that the Russian occupiers have changed their tactics, trying to destroy the city's energy grid and terrorize its 1.3 million citizens by shelling residential buildings.
That is why the blocked $60 billion military aid package is crucial.
"We need this support to prevent Kharkiv from becoming the second Aleppo," the Mayor of Kharkiv emphasized.
As you know, the siege of Aleppo was a large-scale tragedy, accompanied by massive loss of life and war crimes.
Russia is repeating the scenarios that happened to the Syrian city. In particular, more than 90% of the residents of eastern Aleppo during the siege were ordinary civilians. At the end of 2016, the UN estimated the number of residents at 200,000, and after the evacuation of the temporarily displaced, there were 111,000 people.
The forces of Bashar al-Assad's government have also periodically used chemical weapons.
In particular, about 150 people suffered from the use of chlorine in September 2016.
In addition, the Syrian regime has used other prohibited weapons. In particular, cluster bombs and incendiary weapons.
Hospitals were regularly bombed. During the Syrian conflict, 400 attacks on medical facilities and more than 760 deaths of medical workers were recorded.
Earlier, we wrote that Russians hit a hospital in Chernihiv with missiles.