ALBAWABA - Kharkiv risks becoming "a second Aleppo" unless US officials approve new military aid to assist Ukraine in obtaining the air defenses required to prevent long-range Russian attacks, according to the city's mayor Ihor Terekhov.
Terekhov said Russia has adjusted its methods to try to damage the city's power supply and "terrorize" its 1.3 million population by firing into residential areas, resulting in unannounced power outages lasting hours at a time.
The $60 billion US military aid plan, which is presently delayed in Congress, was of "critical importance for us" and encouraged the West to focus on the two-year-old war, Terekhov said.
Referring to the historic city of Aleppo in northern Syria, which has been witnessing brutal Syrian and Russian bombings for 10+ years, Terekhove stated: "We need that support to prevent Kharkiv being a second Aleppo,".
Kharkiv risks becoming a second Aleppo without US aid - the city's mayor in an interview with The Guardian
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) April 17, 2024
"We need this support so that Kharkiv does not become a second Aleppo," he said, referring to the Syrian city, which was heavily bombed by Russian and Syrian government… pic.twitter.com/tXF19GO203
On March 22, Russian attacks destroyed a power station on Kharkiv's eastern outskirts, as well as all of its substations; a week later, officials confirmed that a second facility, 30 miles southeast of the city, had been destroyed in the same strike.
Children are educated either online or in underground schools to ensure their safety. The water supply remains operational, but Terekhov expressed fear that the Russian military may shift its focus to gas delivery, following the strike on storage facilities in the west last week.
Ukrainian politicians have begun to push Western nations to give Patriot air defense systems, requests that were heightened by US and UK military backing for Israel over the weekend, when it neutralized an Iranian air attack.
