Ukrainian professor Igor Girka´s war diary

More than two years of madness

War diary by Prof. Dr. Igor Girka, DAAD alumnus (KIT visiting professor), National W. N. Karasin University, Kharkiv/Ukraine; to support a hospital in Kharkiv please donate here (charity campaign organized by DAAD alumni in Heidelberg and Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal, where Mr. Girka was a guest speaker during his time in Germany).

April 14, 2024

Dear all!

When I started this diary in 2022, I did not expect for such a long period to be covered. This week the world observed increased activity of military actions in the near East. However, russia continues and even escalates war crimes in Kharkiv. The enemy continued to massively bombard towns and villages of the region with various types of weapons, terrorizing the civilian population. All week long, the electric power supply was switched off in Kharkiv for at least three hours a day. This crucially restricts on-line education at the University with no saying about business. No news can be found at the University site for this reason. I talk by phone with my colleagues in Kharkiv: luckily nobody among them as well as our students was injured by russian missiles and bombs this week. In this background, regular functioning of public electric transport looks like a great achievement.

April 7: At 12:33, the enemy shelled several areas of the city, as a result of which three women and a 45-year-old civilian man were injured. The man received shrapnel wounds, but refused hospitalization. The enemy struck the central park and the industrial zone, where a house was damaged and a garage was on fire as a result of the attack. At noon, the russian bandits shelled the suburbs of Zolochiv city with guided aerial bombs. Tanks and technical facilities of a local enterprise were damaged, windows in private houses were broken. No casualties.

April 8: With the support of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine, mobile audiovisual studios for teenagers and young people were opened in the youth centers of the cities of Kegychivka and Valky. During the past week, the pyrotechnic units of the State Service for Emergency Situations were involved in the disposal of explosive objects in the Kharkiv Region 310 times. 796 ammunitions were found and destroyed. At 12:26, the arrival of the X-59 missile was recorded in Chuguyiv, two private houses were damaged by the blast wave. The second missile fell on open territory in the direction of Borova. No casualties. -- A meeting was held regarding the situation in Kharkiv with the participation of the Prime Minister, the First Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Energy, the Minister of Finance, and the team of the President's Office. Measures to support Kharkiv residents were the key issue. The terms when energy deficits in Kharkiv can be reduced are presented. The Government is preparing economic support measures for Kharkiv and the region.

April 9: President Zelensky visited the Kharkiv region. He checked the progress of construction of fortifications and met with Kharkiv businessmen. The russian bandits struck at least 2 guided aerial bombs against a civilian enterprise in Kharkiv. There is destruction and burning of buildings. Three victims were in average condition, all of them were employees of the enterprise. A 31-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman were hospitalized with shrapnel wounds and blast injuries. A 55-year-old man was treated on the spot. There are about 528,000 internally displaced persons in Kharkiv region, of which almost 40% have the right to receive payments from the state in accordance with the requirements of the law.

April 10: Around 2 p.m., enemy shelling took place in the villages of Lyptsi and Mala Danylivka. A shop and a pharmacy were on fire. Three people died as a result of enemy shelling in Lyptsi: a 14-year-old girl, 43- and 59-year-old women. A 33-year-old employee of the pharmacy received shrapnel injuries - she and a 16-year-old boy were hospitalized. Between 12:20 and 14:15, the russian bandits released two guided aerial bombs on the city of Vovchansk. Two civilian 54-year-old men were injured. They were hospitalized. As a result of the strikes, the polyclinic was completely destroyed. -- A meeting of the Regional Office of International Cooperation on Demining Territories was held in Kharkiv. In particular, Great Britain, the USA, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Finland, and the Netherlands are involved in the cooperation. The meeting was devoted to the issue of cleaning the territory of the Kharkiv region from explosive objects. More than 100 representatives of international organizations, relevant ministries and departments took part in the event. After the deoccupation of the Kharkiv region, about 1.2 million hectares are considered potentially contaminated by explosive objects. Almost 11,208 hectares of territory, 1,265 kilometers of highways, 3,584 power lines, 206 kilometers of railway tracks and 330 kilometers of gas pipelines have already been demined. 176,058 explosive objects were also destroyed.

April 11: From 05:00 in the morning, the enemy carried out massive S-300 missile strikes on the energy infrastructure of Kharkiv and the region. In addition, residential buildings and an administrative building were damaged.

April 12: In the Kharkiv region, more than 15,000 people with disabilities from childhood and children with disabilities received financial assistance from the UN World Food Program.

April 13: After 1 p.m., the russian bandits struck Kupyansk district again. As a result of dropping ammunition from the FPV drone, the driver of the emergency medical aid team was injured. The 58-year-old driver was on a call to the village of Petropavlivka. Doctors provided all the necessary help. Around 9:00 p.m., the russian bandits struck the village of Vesele near Lyptsi. A private house was completely destroyed. Two civilians died - a man and a woman. Their bodies were unblocked from under the rubble.

April 14: After midnight, the russian bandits hit Kharkiv with at least two Shaheds. Again, critical infrastructure is the target.

No to war!

April 7, 2024

Dear all!

Last week, social networks have been actively discussing the possibility of increasing attacks by russian bandits on Kharkiv this spring. Perhaps this is part of russia's hybrid war against Ukraine. In any case, missile fire and bombing of civilians in the Kharkiv region definitely became more frequent and more powerful. Today, as a result of the destruction of the energy infrastructure, half a million residents of the region remain without electricity, of which three hundred thousand are residents of the city of Kharkiv itself. And this means that elevators, water pumps do not work, there is no Internet connection... Accordingly, students cannot participate even in online classes. Thanks to the help of benefactors, all hospitals are powered by autonomous generators.

April 1: at 1:20 p.m., in the city of Vovchansk, the russians struck residential buildings. A 27-year-old woman was hospitalized with shrapnel injuries.

April 2: One person died and one child was injured as a result of enemy shelling of the village of Novoosynove, Kupyansk district. The russian bandits shelled the settlement around 5:00 p.m. A 59-year-old civilian died on the spot. An 11-year-old boy was hospitalized with injuries.

April 3: The administration, students and teachers of Kharkiv University joined an important initiative to preserve the diversity of the plant life of the University botanical garden. This year, deciduous magnolias were planted - a symbol of spring and love.

The International Physicist Tournament, one of the world's most prestigious competitions for physics students, was taking place in Zurich (Switzerland) on April 2-6. The Ukrainian team has been participating in these tournaments since its inception. The first tournament was held in Ukraine in 2009. In the previous 15 years, the Ukrainian team was among the top three winners 10 times. Only the French team can boast of such success. The war greatly worsened the training conditions of Ukrainian teams: they had to train online, with almost no access to experimental laboratories, with a focus on the female composition of the team and leaders. This year, 2 students of Kharkiv University played in the Ukrainian team: Vlada Fandeeva from the Faculty of Physics and Stanislava Litvinova from the Faculty of Physics and Technology, and the leaders of the team were two graduates of the Faculty of Physics and Technology - Ksenia Minakova and Anastasia Gaeva. The Ukrainian team showed a better result than nine other national teams, in particular, it beat the teams from Great Britain, Spain, and Denmark. According to the results of the qualifying matches, the Ukrainian team took 12th place among 21 participating teams and did not make it to the semi-finals.

During March, the residents of the Dergachy community of the Kharkiv region received more than 20,000 food kits from international partners. The World Food Program and the "Peaceful Sky" Charitable Foundation, as well as the American international organization "Global Empowerment Mission Ukraine" and the humanitarian mission "World Central Kitchen" provided significant support.

From March 28 to April 3, established units of explosives deminers demined almost 403 hectares of territory in the Kharkiv region, destroyed more than 2,000 explosive objects.

April 4: Chemonics International Inc. / the "Partnership for a Strong Ukraine" Foundation provided assistance to the residents of Chuguyiv District for more than 250 thousand euro. At the expense of benefactors, the windows in the building of the Chuguyiv Central Hospital and the educational institution, which were damaged by enemy shelling, were replaced. Also, benefactors gave the hospital washing machines and dryers, anti-shock films on the windows. An excavator-loader was handed over to the needs of municipal institutions of the city community. -- At 12:47 p.m., the invaders struck the territory between the two villages. As a result of the impact, a civilian man, who was in the tractor at the time of the impact, died. -- Russian bandits carried out a mass drone attack in Kharkiv, as a result of which 4 people died. 12 people suffered injuries of varying degrees: 3 are in a serious condition, 5 are in an average condition, the rest are mild. Among those who were killed, there were three firefighters. Firefighters arrived immediately at the scene of the impact to extinguish the fire and provide first aid to the victims, but a vile re-strike by russian bandits took their lives.

Some of the people who were forced to evacuate from villages near the russian border live in the dormitories of educational institutions in Kharkiv. They are called "internally displaced persons". With the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), these people received humanitarian aid that will make their lives more comfortable. Sets of tables with cabinets, office chairs and armchairs, new computer equipment - laptops, multifunctional devices, routers and other IT devices - were handed over to equip rooms and rest areas.

My former student Dmytro Kudin, who defended his PhD thesis at the meeting of the scientific council at our Faculty of Physics and Technology, is now an officer of Ukrainian Armed Forces. He reported on being awarded.

April 5: Medicines and consumables worth more than $470,000 were handed over to Kharkiv region hospitals. The aid came from the charitable foundation "For a Peaceful Sky" and the Ukrainian-American Cultural Association of the State of Oregon, USA. -- At 17:10, the enemy shelled the villages of Momotove and Oleksandrivka, Kharkiv region. The first strike took place near the defunct buildings of a private agricultural complex. The second was on the open territory.

April 6: The University community became part of the #WhiteCard flashmob on the occasion of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace and the World Health Day. Before the full-scale invasion, sports were a daily norm for our university - in the spring, table tennis appeared on the street, basketball, boxing, football, fencing, chess, badminton, rock climbing or archery were held in the halls. During the war, everything changed. Participation in the flash mob is another opportunity to convey the Ukrainian voice to the entire sports world. Among the teachers of the University, there is Paralympic table tennis champion Maryna Lytovchenko. She joined the flash mob against the background of the house where she lived before February 24, 2022, which was destroyed by russian bandits. -- As a result of enemy attacks on the city, six people died, more than 10 people were injured, residential buildings and civil infrastructure were damaged. -- Russian bandits hit the civilian infrastructure of the village of Borova, Izyum district, with guided aerial bombs. Fortunately, there were no casualties. The two-story building of "Ukrposhta" (post office), the building of a hairdresser and a veterinary pharmacy were destroyed. -- At 3:07 p.m., russian bandits struck the Shevchenkiv district of Kharkiv. One person died, another was injured. There is damage to civil infrastructure, a car caught fire. -- At 3:40 p.m., russian bandits hit three settlements in the Kharkiv district with guided aerial bombs. The store and boiler room of the store, a private house and an outbuilding were damaged. -- At 4:38 p.m., as a result of the attack by russian bandits on Kharkiv with modified aerial bomb, four more people sought medical help: a 47-year-old man and two women aged 66 and 22 with explosive injuries, and a 10-year-old girl was diagnosed with an acute stress reaction. A 49-year-old man died. Educational institution and residential infrastructure were damaged.

April 7: At 11:09, russian bandits hit the central part of the city. Four hits were recorded. Two people went to the doctors with an acute reaction to stress. The residential infrastructure was damaged.

No to war!

March 31, 2024

Dear all!

March 25: Around 1 p.m., the russian bandits launched missile attacks on the city of Vovchansk, Chuguyiv District. A 65-year-old civilian man died as a result of the shelling. -- Students of the business school of Kharkiv University organized a literary evening "Five minutes before spring". This touching evening took place in Munich, where the students study at the educational hub in partnership with the Kulterzentrum GOROD.

March 26: The russian bandits hit the civilian residential infrastructure of Kharkiv. A hit was recorded in the Shevchenkivskyj district.

March 27: The russian bandits struck twice in the Shevchenkivskyj district of Kharkiv. For the first time, the enemy struck Kharkiv with large-caliber guided air bombs. One person died. At least 19 people were injured, including four children, in particular, a girl born in 2022, a boy born in 2023. Apartment buildings were damaged. -- By the order of March 1, Sergeant Oleksiy Andreev of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was awarded the medal "For Courage" for the courage and steadfastness shown in the performance of military duty to protect Ukraine, in conditions associated with risk to life. Before the full-scale invasion, Oleksiy, a true patriot of Ukraine, worked in the department of technical support for University events at Kharkiv University. From the first days of the war, he defends our country. -- With the assistance of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, 5 energy storage systems were handed over to Kharkiv University by the American charitable organization Direct Relief and the Evgeny Pyvovarov Charitable Foundation. These systems provide power to critical and social infrastructure facilities during power outages.

March 28: Saxony cooperates with Kharkiv region. This was discussed during the visit of the Minister of State and the head of the Saxon State Chancellery, Oliver Schenck. The memorandum of cooperation provides for assistance in the restoration of facilities damaged by hostilities, support for health care facilities, joint development of culture, assistance to the civilian population, etc. -- 7 people who were injured during the missile attack on the city on March 27 are in a Kharkiv hospital. 2 people are in the surgical department with injuries to various parts of the body, 2 are in the neurosurgical department for head injuries, 2 are in the ophthalmology department with eye injuries, and 1 is in the head and neck surgical department. -- A 57-year-old local resident died as a result of Russian shelling of the village of Monachynivka, Kupiansk district. The woman died of her injuries on the way to the hospital. Her husband is also injured. He is provided with the necessary medical assistance.

March 29: Social workers from 19 communities of Kharkiv region received modern electric scooters. It was possible to provide specialists with transport thanks to the UN Development Program and the Japanese government. Means of transportation have been transferred to de-occupied settlements, where social workers have to cover considerable distances to people to provide services. -- In Kharkiv region, 185 hectares of territory were demined in the last week.

On March 30, colleagues from the Faculty of Radiophysics sent sad news. "A wonderful man died heroically... The radiophysics of resonance structures was left without Dmytro Tyrnov, his knowledge and energy. Memories of a bright person will be forever preserved in the memory of friends. Sworn to the military oath of loyalty to the Ukrainian people, courageously fulfilling his military duty in the fight for Ukraine, its freedom and independence, on March 18, 2024, near the settlement of Malyshivka, Zaporizhzhia region, senior lieutenant Dmytro Tyrnov (born June 28, 1978), head of anti-aircraft battery maintenance, died heroically." -- I knew Dmytro well as a winner of intellectual competitions in physics among schoolchildren and university students. We are friends with his father, who worked at the university as deputy dean of the Faculty of Radiophysics, vice-rector, and headed the university's trade union organization. -- 21 cars from local volunteer organizations and international partners were handed over to the defenders of the Kharkiv region and the State Emergency Situations Service. 18 cars were given to military personnel who protect the borders of the Kharkiv region, and 3 more cars were sent to the Main Office of the State Emergency Service.

No to war!

March 24, 2024

Dear all!

I have already many times emphasized that Ukraine is the only country which voluntarily gave up nuclear weapons. The weapons were transferred to russian federation with a promise of the nuclear club to guarantee territorial integrity of Ukraine. If not saying anything about nuclear weapons, russian bandits prevail against the Ukrainian army in the air. On the military front, this misbalance is compensated by bravery, motivation and lives of Ukrainian militaries. As far as russian attacks on civilian Ukrainians, this imbalance causes numerous victims. Last week brought a lot of sad news about missile attacks on my native Kharkiv.

On March 19, the University's website reported that representatives of the Ukrainian and international offices of the World Health Organization paid a working visit to Kharkiv University on March 15. The meeting was attended by Dr. Fami Hanna, expert in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use at WHO Headquarters and Co-Chair of the Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support of the Interagency Standing Committee.

Kharkiv University handed over 2 EcoFlow charging stations and 3 inverter generators to the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after Prince Roman the Great. The equipment was purchased with money raised by the University employees. The 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade is one of those in whose ranks students and employees of the University defend Ukraine.

Last week, the silence was interrupted dozens of times by the sounds of explosions from controlled detonations of russian bombs and missiles by Ukrainian explosives technicians.

In the Izyum district, during spring field work, a tractor of a local agricultural company was blown up by a mine. An extraordinary event took place in the field between the villages of Fedorivka and Nadezhdivka. As a result of detonation of equipment on a mine, the tractor driver was injured.

March 20:
12:14 – the Kharkiv regional military administration reported: “The russian bandits once again attacked one of the districts of Kharkiv. There may be people under the rubble.”
16:19 – “According to updated information, the number of victims has increased to seven people. Six people were hospitalized, one refused hospitalization. It is also currently known about four dead people. Rescuers continue to unblock people from under the rubble.”
16:28 – “Another man was unblocked from under the rubble. The number of dead increased to 5 people. Emergency services continue to work.”
19:39 – “As of now, the number of victims has increased to 8. Of them, seven people have been hospitalized, and one person has received help on the spot. 5 people died.”

March 21: Over 270 hectares of territory were demined in the Kharkiv region during the week. From March 14 till March 20, inclusive, sappers defused 2,267 explosive objects.

March 22: Around 5:00 a.m., russian bandits launched a massive rocket attack on Kharkiv. 22 missiles of various types were launched: S-300 guided missiles, ballistic missiles from the Iskander operational-tactical missile complexes, and others. It is very unfortunate that in the missiles used by the enemy, Ukrainian explosives engineers find thousands of components that the terrorist state imported from Europe, USA… Serious damage was caused to the energy infrastructure. Emergency telephone lines were damaged, so reserve telephone numbers were used. My colleagues who work in Kharkiv were without electricity, water, and communication, including the Internet, for two days. Even on March 23, I could not reach some of them.

March 23: Kharkiv was visited by the delegations of the Embassies of Canada and Sweden. During the meeting with the Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the countries providing financing to the Fund "Partnership for the Stability of Ukraine", the issue of restoration of the Kharkiv region, especially in the de-occupied territories, was raised. About 15 settlements of the Kharkiv region were hit by enemy artillery and mortar attacks. At 2:08, the city of Kupyansk was under enemy fire. A private house was on fire, no one was injured. Around 10:00 a.m., a 72-year-old man died as a result of enemy artillery shelling in the Chuguyiv district. An extraordinary event took place in the village of Vovchanski Khutory. At 1:30 p.m., the village Novoosynove of Kupyansk district was shelled. The enemy hit the territory. No casualties. At 14:00 in the city of Vovchansk, a private house was damaged during shelling. No casualties. At 5:45 p.m. in the city of Kharkiv, the enemy fired at a private enterprise in the Slobidskyi district of the city. In total, 4 premises and 2 cars were affected. No casualties. At 9:52 p.m. in the city of Vovchansk, a private home was damaged during enemy shelling. No casualties. At 10:35 p.m., the enemy shelled the village of Slobozhanske, Kharkiv district, with rocket launchers. Damaged private house. No casualties. At 10:35 p.m. in the city of Kupyansk, a car was on fire as a result of a series of shellings, and 2 private houses and two commercial buildings were also damaged. There are no casualties. At 23:03, a private house and a car were damaged during shelling in the city of Kupyansk. A 43-year-old man is injured.

March 24: Currently, up to 200,000 city phone and internet subscribers are disconnected. Energy workers continue to work 24/7 to eliminate the consequences of shelling.

No to war!

March 19, 2024

Dear all!

This weekend, my home PC was disabled. That is why I delayed with the report on events of the period starting from March 11. Russian bandits continue their crimes. Ukraine continues resisting with the support of international democratic world. I am very thankful to people from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" for continuous powerful support to Khakriv hospital. The humanitarian aids are always very helpful.

March 11: Around 1:30 p.m., the city of Vovchansk (Kharkiv region) was under enemy fire. A 70-year-old woman was injured. 8 private houses were damaged. After 13:00, the village of Glushkove came under enemy fire. It is previously known about three wounded civilian men who were hospitalized. At the same time, the russians fired S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles at the village of Kutuzivka - without casualties. The UN will help repair more than 1,000 private houses in Kharkiv region. This was discussed during a meeting between representatives of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration and the employees of the Kharkiv Office of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

March 12: At 15:18, 3 enemy missile strikes were recorded - no casualties. Last fall, Kharkiv farmers increased the area under winter crops by 46.2% compared to 2022, which amounted to 325.9 thousand hectares.

March 13: At 3:00 p.m., the russian bandits shelled the city of Vovchansk with a guided aerial bomb: a two-story residential building and nearby structures were damaged, no information was received about the victims.

March 14: That night, the russian bandits carried out targeted massive strikes by drones on the television and radio infrastructure of the Kharkiv region. An enemy strike with a S-300 missile was recorded in the Kharkiv suburbs with no casualties. In Kharkiv region, 135 hectares of territory were demined in one week. From March 7 to March 13 inclusive, sappers defused 1,886 explosive objects. A new demining machine is being tested in the Kharkiv region. Nowadays, 7 demining machines are operating in the region. Their number is planned to be gradually increased. The UN World Food Program purchased 3 machines for preparing soil for demining in Kharkiv region. The machines were developed in Kharkiv. The first machine was tested and handed over to the pyrotechnic units. Two more devices are being manufactured.

March 15: Kharkiv University entered the HE Higher Education Ranking, taking the second place in the overall ranking and the first place among 15 Ukrainian universities. In total, 303 higher education institutions from Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Morocco, Germany, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary and other countries were included in the ranking. The ranking evaluates universities according to 25 criteria, including: research, internationalization, lifelong learning, academic freedom, sustainable development, social and cultural impact of the university, academic transparency, futuristic concept of the university, etc. -- For the first time in Ukraine, a master class "Therapy with elementary particles" was arranged for schoolchildren by the Faculty of Physics and Technology. During the event, experts demonstrated the direct impact of basic research on medical applications. Schoolchildren were introduced to the real-world technique of working to treat cancer using X-rays, protons or carbon ions as a physical knife controlled by software. With the help of matRad, a professional research software toolkit, participants were shown the various stages of cancer treatment planning. The master class "Cancer therapy with elementary particles" became part of the International Master Classes on Elementary Particle Physics of the flagship project of the International Educational Group on Elementary Particle Physics (IPPOG), spread all over the world. Kharkiv University continues to open the world of scientific research to young people and work to preserve and develop the scientific potential of Ukraine!

March 15: In the de-occupied village of Tsupivka, electricity supply was fully restored. As a result of the temporary occupation and active hostilities, the energy infrastructure of the village was severely damaged. Currently, all 3 substations have been repaired, 182 electrical poles have been replaced, and almost 10 kilometers of modern self-supporting insulated wire have been installed. At 4:20 p.m., the russian bandits carried out a strike with "Iskander" missiles on the city of Zolochiv. As a result of the strike, the premises of the dormitory and the premises of the emergency medical aid point were destroyed. The premises of the Zolochiv hospital were damaged. 2 ambulances were destroyed, 2 were partially damaged. No casualties. Additionally, cars and 16 private homes were damaged.

March 16: International organizations plan to help more than 740,000 residents of Kharkiv region to restore housing. This was discussed during a meeting in the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration with a delegation of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Last year, the Housing and Non-Food Products Cluster provided assistance to more than 60,000 residents of the Kharkiv region. People were provided with sets of building materials for the restoration of damaged housing, as well as firewood for the heating season. This year, they plan to increase the assistance.

March 17: At 9:15 a.m., the russian bandits fired at the temporary location of an ambulance in the village of Bugaivka. A 36-year-old paramedic and a 56-year-old ambulance driver were injured. They are currently being treated at a hospital in Kharkiv. A one-story building was damaged, where there were medical workers, nearby buildings, as well as two ambulance cars.

March 18: In Kharkiv region, pyrotechnic units of the State Emergency Situations Service defused 298 explosive objects in a week. Currently, 32 pyrotechnic calculations are working in the Kharkiv region. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, sappers have surveyed more than 4,521 hectares of territory, with the involvement of mechanized mine clearance machines - 153 hectares. 3,110 kilometers of power lines were also surveyed and demined. During the entire period of work, 88,956 explosive objects were detected and neutralized.

No to war!

March 10, 2024

Dear all!

Yesterday, I sent another parcel from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" to Kharkiv hospital. This link between Germany and Ukraine is only one example of tremendous support to my Motherland. I appreciate it very much!

Two years ago, on March 4, my wife and I left our apartment in Kharkiv. On March 5, we left Kharkiv. For more than two years I did not visit Kharkiv. Two years ago, I assumed that this was for a short time. Now, I hear more and more often that I cannot expect a peace in Ukraine in near future. My weekly diary messages become similar to each other. This reminds me of the title of Remarque's book "All quiet on the Western Front": moscow cannot finish its blitzkrieg – Ukraine cannot liberate the land.

What has happened in Kharkiv this week?

March 1: The team of Kharkiv students and a physicist became the winner of the world-famous quantum computing event — the QHack 2024 hackathon, which lasted from February 8 to 22. More than 600 teams from more than 90 countries took part in the event. The Kharkiv_team consisted of students of the Faculty of Physics and Technology, Ilya Lukin and Mykola Luhanko, as well as a researcher from the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, Oleksandr Borysenko. The Kharkiv_team took first place in the "A Matter of Taste" nomination with the research paper Bridging the Gap is a Matter of Taste, dedicated to the calculation of spectral characteristics and the determination of phase transitions in the Ising model using quantum computing. -- Also on March 1, 2024, the General Assembly of the European Nuclear Education Association ENEN was held. Kharkiv University, as a member of ENEN, presented the current state of affairs and the initiative to create a nuclear medicine center in Kharkiv on the basis of the Faculty of Physics and Technology and the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology. -- On March 1, 2024, the Kharkiv tour of the XX International master class on elementary particle physics took place on the basis of the Faculty of Physics and Technology. 38 schoolchildren from Kharkiv took part in the event.

March 4: The University site reported that Ksenia Minakova, a researcher from Kharkiv, presented Ukraine at the world summit "Development of science, creation of technologies for a better world" in Singapore. On January 8–12, she took part in the GYSS 2024 global summit of young scientists, where she presented Ukraine for the first time in its history. This forum is one of the most prestigious in the field of science. In total, more than 350 young researchers and leading scientists from 38 countries of the world took part in it. The Nobel Prize, the Fields Prize and the Millennium Technology Prize winners were the honorary guests of the summit. Ksenia Minakova is a 2011 graduate of the Department of Theoretical Nuclear Physics of the Faculty of Physics and Technology. -- Polish partners are helping to rebuild dispensaries and educational institutions in the Kharkiv region. This was discussed during the visit of representatives of the Polish Center for International Aid to Kharkiv. Representatives of the center have been helping Ukrainians since 2014. Currently, in the Kharkiv region, the foundation managed to carry out emergency repairs of more than 100 private residential buildings in the villages of Tsyrkuny, Ruski Tyshky and the city of Zmiyiv. They also replaced broken windows in more than hundred of apartments in the Saltivka district of Kharkiv. -- The Faculty of Physics and Technology received confirmation from the European Commission for the implementation of the "EU-UA Nuclear Research and Education Capacity Building" (NURECAB) project. The project will be implemented within the EURATOM WP 2023-2025 program TOPIC IBA 3 (Education, training, capacity building and networking actions to strengthen Ukrainian and EU nuclear research).

March 5: At 10:30, russian troops shelled the village of Kurylivka, Kupyansk district. A 67-year-old civilian woman died as a result of the shelling.

March 6: As a result of the enemy shelling of the village of Borova, 1 person was killed and 7 injured, including three minor boys. A civilian, a 70-year-old local resident, died. A 73-year-old civilian was hospitalized with injuries from debris. A 44-year-old woman suffered moderate injuries. A 24-year-old woman was diagnosed with an acute reaction to stress. Three young men, aged between 12 and 16, have light and moderate injuries. An 18-year-old boy received a shrapnel wound. As a result of the shelling, a fire broke out on the territory of the house, a car, a garage, and outbuildings were destroyed. -- This year, almost 17,000 applicants from the Kharkiv region will take the national multi-subject test for admission to universities. For this purpose, it is planned to create about 50 safe temporary examination centers in 10 settlements.

March 7: At 10:00, russian bandits shelled Vovchansk with a guided aerial bomb. A 40-year-old civilian woman died as a result of a direct hit to a private house. A 67-year-old woman suffered minor injuries without hospitalization. At least 12 private residential buildings were damaged. -- Over 114 hectares of territory were demined in the Kharkiv region during the week. From February 29 to March 6, 1,660 explosive objects were neutralized. -- The Presidential decree on the release of conscripts to the reserve - those who were called up for military service before February 24, 2022 - has been signed. Now, at the request of the military command, several weeks are needed for preparatory procedures - to replace people from the point of view of defense tasks, and from April conscripts will be sent to the reserve. -- The Defense Council of the Kharkiv region adopted a decision on the compulsory evacuation of children with their parents or companions from the settlements of the Kupyansk district, which are under enemy fire every day.

March 8: Around 3:00 p.m., an enemy FPV drone hit a civilian car in Vovchansk. A 58-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman died. According to witnesses, another person could have been in the car. -- The Kharkiv Regional Military Administration plans to expand the number of facilities for the residence of internally displaced persons. -- 13 specialized cars worth almost 2 million euros were sent to the de-occupied areas of Kharkiv region. The Kharkiv region received this humanitarian aid from the German Federal Agency for Technical Assistance and the German Foreign Ministry.

March 9: Kharkiv University held an Open Day for interested applicants! The event took place in a mixed version: offline - in the safe space of the University - and online on the YouTube and Zoom platforms. It was possible to get acquainted with the possibilities of the University from anywhere in the world. In total, about 2,000 entrants joined the event!

No to war!

March 3, 2024

Dear all!

I report on what happened in Kharkiv this week.

February 25: Around 4:00 p.m., two men aged 32 and 19 were killed by a mine explosion near the village of Velyki Prokhody. Both were residents of the nearby village of Slatine. At 10:00 p.m., the russian army fired S-300 missiles from the territory of the city of Belgorod. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Kharkiv badminton players Polina Bugrova and Evgeniya Kantemir won the bronze award of the international badminton tournament "Uganda International Challenge 2024". The competition was held in Uganda from February 21 to 25.

February 26: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to Ukraine, Gael Vessier, visited Kharkiv in order to organize assistance in the protection of Kharkiv's critical infrastructure facilities. Power supply was restored in the village of Ukrainske, Kharkiv region. This village near the border with the russian federation was cut off from the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion.

February 27: In Kharkiv, triplets were born for the first time in four years. The head of the economic department of the German Embassy, Mr. Christopher Fuchs, visited Kharkiv University. A document was signed on the restoration of 550 windows at the university, damaged as a result of a missile attack on Kharkiv on January 2, 2024.

February 28: Russian bandits hit the village of Velykyi Burluk with guided aerial bombs. There were hits on the territory of the railway station. Two people died - a man and a six-year-old girl. The child's mother was taken to the hospital in serious condition. In the afternoon, russian bandits hit the city of Kupyansk with guided air bombs. They hit a cafe, and five people were injured. Two more people died. As a result of the shelling, at least 12 private houses were damaged. A local cafe and a church were destroyed.

February 29: Arina Koroteeva from Kharkiv won the international ranking competition in track cycling, which took place in the Swiss city of Grenchen. UNICEF representatives took part in the opening of a youth center in Valky, Kharkiv region. Over 1,600 explosive objects were destroyed in the Kharkiv region in a week. From February 22 to 28, 92.5 hectares of territory were demined.

March 1: President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte visited Kharkiv. During the visit, it was noted that more than 20,000 buildings have been destroyed in Kharkiv since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion: schools, universities, houses, kindergartens and churches. The city was mutilated by russian shelling, but definitely unconquered. President Zelenskyi and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Rutte visited the hospital supported by DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar and Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal where Ukrainian defenders are being treated after injuries. A bilateral security agreement was signed between Ukraine and the Netherlands. "The Netherlands is already providing Ukraine with significant support for the defense of the sky - in strengthening our air defense and in approaching the moment when the first Ukrainian F-16s will appear in Ukrainian skies. And we have to do much more - all partners together - to provide reliable protection to our cities and communities. I especially thank you for the principled and strong position regarding the need to establish a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression and for the full restoration of justice." – said President Zelenskyi.
Kharkiv received another humanitarian aid from Germany. The batch of humanitarian aid included special vehicles for construction work, powerful generators, materials for emergency repairs, etc. For the needs of the most affected and de-occupied territories of the Kharkiv region, the Federal Agency for Technical Assistance (THW) together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany handed over 1.7 million euros in humanitarian aid. The occupiers struck the city of Kharkiv with drones. Fortunately, there were no casualties. In several high-rise buildings, windows were broken, two cars burned to the ground, and garages were damaged.

March 2: Poland will help in the reconstruction of the Kharkiv region. This was discussed during the visit to Kharkiv of the Chairman of the Commission of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland on International Cooperation Pavlo Koval and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland to Ukraine Yaroslav Huza.

No to war!

February 25, 2024

Dear all!

February 19:
- Kharkiv boxers won medals at the Open Dracula 2024 international youth boxing tournament. The competition took place from February 12 to 18 in Romania. As part of the national team of Ukraine, the Kharkiv region was represented by four boxers who won 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.
- Unfortunately, a 50-year-old resident of the village of Vovchanski Khutori, Chuguyiv district, who suffered shrapnel injuries as a result of enemy shelling of the settlement on February 16, died in the hospital today.

February 21: The active process of evacuation from the de-occupied territories of the Kharkiv region began in September 2022. During this time, 29 750 people, including 709 children were evacuated due to the joint efforts of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration and volunteer organizations.

February 22: It is with deep sadness that we inform you that it has become known about the death of Oleksiy Kovalenko, a graduate of the Faculty of Psychology of the Kharkiv University. Oleksiy studied at the university in 2005–2010. He encountered a full-scale war in the ranks of the border troops. He died in March 2022 during a missile attack on the place of deployment of the unit in the Kharkiv region. Oleksiy was a very handsome, bright man, a brave warrior and a true patriot.

From February 15 to 21, 1 905 explosive objects were defused in the Kharkiv region. The units of explosives deminers demined almost 92 hectares of territory. They also surveyed 40 hectares of agricultural land, 9 kilometers of highway sections and 10 objects.

February 23: International partners strengthen assistance to residents of the frontline and de-occupied territories of the Kharkiv region. This was discussed during a meeting with representatives of the Austrian organization VOLKSHILFE and the Charitable Organization "International Charitable Foundation "SIRIUS". Philanthropists have been helping the residents of the Kharkiv region since the first months of the full-scale invasion. They systematically provide food products, hygiene kits, as well as domestic gas cylinders to over 30 000 families.

February 24: From February 19 to 24, the European Indoor Archery Championship was held in Varaždin, Croatia. During the competition, athletes of the Kharkiv region twice climbed to the highest step of the podium of honor.

No to war!

February 24, 2024 (2)

Dear all!

This week was not an exception: the enemy killed civilian Ukrainians, destroyed our cities and villages, civilians were blown up by russian mines in territories liberated from the enemy, Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is still under russian occupation… The enemy was even more active on the eve of “elections” in russia.

Today’s message is not a review of what has happened this week. It is about ten years of russian invasion to Ukraine and TWO years of active bald-faced genocide.

Crimea, 2014. After splitting the USSR into a number of independent countries, russia proclaimed Balaklava (the port in Sevastopol) as its military base. In my opinion, Ukraine has more rights for all the infrastructure, ships… in Balaklava as compared with russia. However, today I emphasize that later on these “guests” decided that they should be the hosts. The Crimean Parliament voted for being included into russia with armed russian militaries present in the hall where the Parliament members voted. Despite the russian occupations of Crimea and Donbass were not recognized by democratic world, russia remained in the UN Security Council, russian leaders were invited everywhere…

This day two years ago, I awoke at 04:40 from the sounds of explosions: russia started its “special operation” by bombing my native Kharkiv and other cities of Ukraine. The building of my Faculty was destroyed already during the very first day of this campaign. Since then, the University works on-line. Many students and professors became volunteers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. More than forty of them were killed by russian bandits as well as many of our civilian colleagues. Many buildings of the University including the main building were destroyed. More than a half of the staff had to move from Kharkiv to the West Ukraine or abroad.

TWO YEARS have passed. Ukraine resists due to the bravery of its soldiers and powerful international support. However, something has to be changed crucially. The enemy has lost about 180 000 of its militaries, Ukraine about 31 000. The enemy can consider these losses as negligible, but Ukraine cannot. We have a restricted number of people who can join the Army, and therefore we cannot stay in war for a couple of years more.

No to war!

February 24, 2024 (1)

Two years ago this day, I awakened from the sounds of explosions from Russian missiles. Henning Belle from DAAD-Freundeskreis Heidelberg/Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal was among the first of my colleagues from abroad who expressed his solidarity and endorsement. A few days later it appeared that the active military actions will last for a long time. And both institutions started active support to Kharkiv hospital. Dozens of postal parcels with humanitarian aids, thousands of euros were transferred from Bruchsal/Heidelberg to Kharkiv since then, which is greatly appreciated by me and my friends in the hospital staff (with no saying about the patients – brave men and women wounded during defending their Motherland)!

Thank you very much!

We realize that our existence is impossible without powerful support from the democratic world: both governments and people. The support is also significant not to feel alone in the struggle with the Russian bandits.

I hope for your active support in the future and for the victory over Russian evil in the near future. Many of my students and colleagues are now volunteers in the ranks of Ukrainian Armed Forces. I want them to return to their families and university classes with a victory - and alive.

Together we shall overcome!

February 18, 2024

Dear all!

Next week, it will be two years since russian federation started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Two years russian bandits who were considered as the second army in the world could not realize their goals because of the heroic resistance of Ukrainian people and tremendous support of democratic world to Ukraine. On the other hand, the mankind cannot stop the russian genocide against Ukraine. This week russian bandits committed new crimes in Kharkiv.

From January 16 to February 4, 2024, the All-Ukrainian Winter School of Quantum Computing QHack UA Bootcamp 2024 was held for students and specialists in quantum computing. Training took place in a hybrid format on the basis of the Ukrainian Catholic University in the city of Lviv. A team consisting of two students of my faculty, Ilya Lukin and Mykola Luhanko, and a graduate of the Faculty of Physics, Oleksandr Borysenko, took first place in the competition of works within this school. The topic of their work was "Variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm for analysis of financial portfolios".

February 11: The russian bandits struck the city of Lyubotyn of the Kharkiv district with S-300 missiles from the russian city of Belgorod. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Facades of non-residential buildings were damaged.

February 12: Last week, the pyrotechnics of the State Emergency Service made 122 trips to dispose of explosive objects, a total of 233 munitions were destroyed. 18 pyrotechnic units of the State Emergency Service, 103 sappers and 37 units of equipment work in the territory of the Kharkiv region. In total, since the beginning of the deoccupation of the Kharkiv region, more than 4,361 hectares of territory have been surveyed, and almost 88,000 units of explosive objects have been detected and neutralized.

For two and a half days, Kharkiv rescuers eliminated the consequences of the terrible russian terror in Kharkiv on February 9. Firefighters spent almost 60 hours extinguishing the flames, which covered almost 4,000 square meters. More than 60 people were rescued and evacuated. They dismantled the debris. And today they finished eliminating all the consequences. More than 200 rescuers - 36 units - were involved in this. As a result of the russian attacks on the reservoirs of the enterprise on February 9, oil products leaked into the ecosystem. According to preliminary data, about 3,000 tons of products were released into the environment. All specialized services are working on eliminating the consequences. Specialists of the State Environmental Inspection in the Kharkiv region immediately took water samples at 9 objects in the city of Kharkiv and the region, namely in the Udy River. The samples were sent for express testing to the Research Institute "Ukrainian Research Institute of Environmental Problems" in order to determine the level of pollution and the presence of harmful substances. At the same time, an action algorithm was developed to prevent the motion of harmful substances along the Udy River, which flows into the Siverskyi Donets River. A place has been identified on the Udy River, where measures will be taken to stop the motion of oil products using port infrastructure barriers and decontamination of water resources with the help of a sorbent. A decision was made to strengthen inspections and control measures at the places of storage, transportation and sale of oil products and other dangerous objects in the territory of the Kharkiv region. Important: according to the results of previous studies, oil products did not get into drinking water sources.

February 13: Today, at 7:30 a.m., as a result of enemy shelling of an agricultural enterprise in the village of Kurylivka, Kupyan district, two civilian men were killed. Another civilian 36-year-old man and a woman received explosive injuries, their condition is assessed as moderate. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Ukraine, Mr. Vladimir Karapetyan, handed over medicines to the Kharkiv region. Around 11 a.m., russian troops launched an artillery bombardment of the central part of the city of Vovchansk, Kharkiv region. As a result, a 61-year-old civilian woman died from a mine-explosive injury, and another 50-year-old civilian woman was injured. At the time of the shelling, they were in the local market.

February 14: Boom barriers are being installed on reservoirs in the Kharkiv region. All specialized services are making efforts to localize and eliminate oil products that have entered the reservoirs of the region after the russian attack on the oil depot on February 9. Currently, experts are installing boom barriers on the Nemyshlia, Lopan, Udy, and Siverskyi Donets rivers. Constructions will stop the spread of oil stains.

February 15: In the village of Chorne, Kupyansk district, two enemy controlled aerial bombs have arrived. Hitting a car with civilians was recorded: at least two dead civilians - a man and his wife. Later, the body of a 17-year-old girl was found near the car. There was also a fire in a residential private building, previously - two injured: a 54-year-old woman was injured, hospitalized in serious condition, and a 53-year-old man was also injured. Boxes with humanitarian aid from "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" and "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" arrived in Kharkiv. Computers, USB cables, smart-phones, and clothes came to the hospital without damage on the way. Many thanks to everybody who supported!

February 16: The Kharkiv region received 3,600 more laptops from UNICEF. Gadgets were distributed among schools of the Kharkiv region, as well as children from vulnerable categories of the population. This morning in the field near the village of Dovgenke, Izyum district, three civilians were blown up by a mine. Unfortunately, two men aged 25 and 50 died. Another 30-year-old man was hospitalized with a shrapnel wound.

February 17: Tonight, russian bandits made about 20 attacks on the village of Lyptsi, Kharkiv region. Enemy shelling was carried out from missile salvo systems and artillery. The building of the Lyptsi village council, a library, a building materials warehouse, and a truck were damaged. Only civilian objects! There was no information about the victims. Around 1:30 p.m., a two-story building with 2 entrances was destroyed as a result of shelling in the city of Kupyansk, and at least 5 private houses were damaged. It was known about one dead woman and five wounded - three women and two men. Around 3:40 p.m., the enemy struck another blow at the village of Lyptsi. Russian bandits used missile launchers. As a result of the shelling, a fire broke out in a private house. No casualties.

No to war!

February 10, 2024

Dear all!

Residents of Kharkiv and the region lived under the sound of explosions this week as well. At least, controlled destruction of explosive objects took place every day in different places of the region. More than 1,400 explosive objects were defused in the Kharkiv region during the week. From February 1 to 7 inclusive, 139 hectares of territory were demined in the region.
But the residents of Kharkiv shudder every day from the explosions of russian bombs and missiles.

February 6: Rescuers removed the body of a two-month-old boy, born on December 4, 2023, from under the rubble of a three-story hotel in the village of Zolochiv. Three women, aged 21, 28 and 39, including the mother of the dead child, were hospitalized with blast injuries and shrapnel wounds. According to the doctors, the 39- and 28-year-old patients are in a satisfactory condition in the trauma department and are undergoing conservative treatment. Instead, a 21-year-old woman was operated on and is currently in intensive care. Doctors consider her condition to be serious. As a result of russian shelling of the Vovchansk community, a civilian enterprise in the village of Okhrimivka and an educational institution in the village of Varvarivka were destroyed. The blows were inflicted by aerial bombs.

February 7: Hits of russian missiles were recorded in Kharkiv. There was damage to non-residential infrastructure.

February 8: On February 8, 2024, the 51st exchange of prisoners of war took place. 100 Ukrainian soldiers were freed from russian captivity. Among the freed are 2 residents of Kharkiv region. Both defenders serve in the ranks of the National Guard of Ukraine.

February 10: At least 10 unmanned aerial vehicles were launched from enemy territory, 8 of them were shot down. In particular, the oil depot was also shelled, from where the fuel leaked, which mixed with the snow and spread across the street. The fire started in 15 private houses. 7 people died, 3 were injured. Among them is a whole family - a spouse and three children. In addition, a 66-year-old man and his 65-year-old wife died in another house. "The eldest son Lyosha was seven years old, the middle Mykhailo was four years old, the youngest was Pavlo, he was ten months old. During times of alarm, parents and children usually hid in the basement. But this time, flames burst into the yard. When the family ran to hide, two cars and fuel were already burning near the house. All seven ended up in a fiery trap.", – said the head of the investigative department of the Kharkiv region.

"The burning temperature was such that the baby's bones and body turned to almost ash. We assume that the mother held the children by hugging and pressing them to her chest ", – said the law enforcement officer. Police believe the father probably passed out first, and his body was found in the kitchen. The mother and children tried to save themselves in the bathroom. All family members were badly burned, so a DNA examination was carried out for final conclusions.

Mandatory evacuation of the population from communities that are under daily shelling by the occupiers continues in the Kharkiv region. Since the beginning of the year 2024, more than 500 people, including 30 families with children, have moved to safer cities of the region.

No to war!

Februar 4, 2024

Dear all!

First of all, I would like to thank "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" who have given and are giving material (clothes, computers, cell phones, chargers…) and also money to buy what is needed for Kharkiv hospital.

During January 12–15, 2024,
the final stage of the XXX All-Ukrainian Tournament of Young Physicists was held remotely in Odesa on the basis of the Richelieu Scientific Lyceum. 15 teams from eight regions of Ukraine took part in the tournament, 6 of them were from Kharkiv region. The city of Kharkiv was represented by 4 teams, three of which won the tournament.

On January 29,
a celebrating meeting of the Kharkiv University Academic Council devoted to the 219th anniversary of the opening of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University was held. The rector of the University professor Tetiana Kaganovska opened the meeting: "I really want to believe that we will celebrate the 220th anniversary in a peaceful Ukraine, and we will make maximum efforts for this."

January 30:
From 1:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m., a controlled destruction of explosive objects was carried out in the Balaklia community.
In the evening, the enemy attacked the Zolochiv community. As a result of the shelling, the house was damaged, there were no casualties.
Also, a missile attack was again carried out on the settlement of Malodanylivka, probably, using Iskander-M. There were no casualties.
The russian bandits directed at least 6 unmanned aerial vehicles to the Kharkiv region. There was damage to civil infrastructure.

January 31:
An exchange took place – 207 Ukrainians were returned from russian captivity including 11 residents of Kharkiv region.

February 1:
Around 12:00, the center of Vovchansk city was shelled with multiple rocket launchers. As a result, an apartment building was damaged. Also, at noon, the occupiers launched at least 2 guided air bombs on Vilkhuvatka, Kupiansk district. They hit the territory of an agricultural enterprise.

During the week,
more than 55 hectares of territory were demined in the Kharkiv region. From January 25 to February 1, 1,300 explosive objects were neutralized.
Almost 40 educational institutions were renovated in the Kharkiv region during the past year thanks to international donors.

February 2:
In the grasslands of Kharkiv region, 91% of winter crops have grown. Last year, almost 240 thousand hectares of fields were sown with winter crops for the 2024 harvest.

February 3:
From 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., controlled destruction of explosive objects was carried out in the Verbivka settlement of Balaklia community.

No to war!

January 28, 2024

Dear all!

On January 18-19, I took part in the EURIZON final event, where the “Fellowship Programme for Ukraine” was discussed in particular. That is why I have missed the page in my diary last Sunday. However, russian bandits did not pause. They continue to attack the civilian infrastructure of the Kharkiv region, terrorizing the civilian population. Only in January 2024, 21 civilians died, including 1 8-year-old child. More than 180 civilians were injured, including 20 children.

January 15:

As a result of the missile strike on January 2, 5 people were hospitalized, 3 of them women, 2 men. As a result of the shelling on January 10, 3 people are in medical facilities: 2 women, 1 man.

From 11:00 a.m. till 12:00 p.m., a controlled destruction of explosive objects took place outside the village Hussarivka of the Balaklia community.

The controlled destruction of an explosive object took place in the area of the city of Balaklia, Izyum district from 12:15 till 13:00.

January 16:

The German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft — DFG) started providing financial support to the joint German-Ukrainian project "Investigation of the possibility of using crystals for the extraction of electrons with an energy of 6 GeV in DESY" (2024-2025). The project is based on the Hrynenko-Shulga mechanism — a stochastic mechanism for the deflection of charged particles by a bent crystal. German reviewers of the project especially note the originality of the suggested method. The following scientists of the Faculty of Physics and Technology participate in the project: professors Ihor Kirillin, Serhii Trofymenko, Mykola Bondarenko, Maksym Malovitsa.

The russian bandits struck Kharkiv with two missiles, previously - S-300. Civilian residential infrastructure was damaged. Doctors helped four victims, their condition was light.

January 17:

A controlled destruction of an explosive object took place outside the city of Balaklia, Izyum district, from 9:30 a.m. till 10:30 a.m.

Controlled destruction of an explosive object was carried out from 10:00 a.m. till 10:30 a.m. in the village of Grakove.

Kharkiv farmers harvested 2.28 million tons of crops in 2023. Field work was conducted in all districts of the region, where the security situation allowed. Farms threshed the most wheat - 1.27 million tons. The sunflower crop amounted to more than 1 million tons, and corn - 957.9 thousand tons. At the same time, the Kharkiv farmers winter crops for the 2024 harvest on an area of 239.3 thousand hectares.

January 18:

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine, Martin Jaeger, visited Kharkiv University During the visit, Martin Jaeger met with the university administration. During the meeting, the Ambassador had the opportunity to see with his own eyes the damage to the main building of the university after the enemy shelling of the central part of the city on January 2. He reported on the decision of a German company that manufactures windows to provide grant assistance to the university. Thanks to this help, as well as a grant from German partners, in cooperation with a Ukrainian company for the production of double-glazed windows, it is planned to install windows in the damaged premises of the Faculty of Foreign Languages. We are grateful to the German community for their care and support, for helping us to achieve our main goal - to stand and win!

Head of Kharkiv regional military administration reported on the condition of the victims of the shelling of Kharkiv on January 16. 12 victims were in the hospital, three of them were in serious condition. These were 39- and 43-year-old women who were seriously injured and were in the neurosurgery department, as well as a 77-year-old woman was in the toxicology department after carbon monoxide poisoning. Doctors considered the condition of other patients to be average and mild. Injuries included brain injuries, shrapnel injuries and fractures.

As a result of russian shelling of the village of Maly Burluk, Kupyansk district, two children were injured: the condition of a 13-year-old girl was serious, doctors performed the necessary surgical interventions. A 10-year-old boy who received a traumatic amputation of the lower limb was in moderate condition.

The russian bandits attacked the city of Kupyansk. Occupants hit an apartment building. A 57-year-old woman died as a result of the shelling. A 57-year-old and a 61-year-old man were injured.

January 19:

At 11:20, a controlled destruction of explosive objects took place in the area of the village of Ruska Lozova.

An angiography department was equipped in Valky Central Hospital. The equipment for the new department was purchased thanks to cooperation with the Emerland Foundation from Switzerland.

Kupyansk city received a fire truck from German partners. The car was obtained in cooperation with the administration of the German city of Rheinbach. The fire truck will be used by the local fire brigade for prompt response and elimination of the consequences of enemy attacks.

January 20:

As part of the "Ukraine is calling" initiative, organized by the Community of Ukrainians in Luxembourg, 4 ambulances were transferred to Kharkiv defenders. The cars were equipped with everything necessary.

January 21:

The previous evening, the russian bandits launched an artillery attack on the village of Pishchane, Kupyansk district. A local resident born in 1950 died of his injuries.

January 22:

The russian bandits once again hit Kupyansk with artillery. Unfortunately, one person died, the data is being established. It is also currently known about the injured 66-year-old man. As a result of the shelling, a civilian car caught fire, an apartment building and a shop were damaged.

During a meeting with t

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi visited Kharkiv to discuss further support for the region.

January 23:

I congratulated the colleague on his birthday. His reply was a s follows. «Thank you very much, Igor! Let's hope that the next birthday will be already after the Victory. And yes, on January 23, there were such "fireworks" during the day from morning to evening that it is dangerous to remind.»

15:59 – 40 injured as a result of the morning enemy strikes turned to Kharkiv hospitals. 3 of them are children who were given all the necessary help and referred to a specialized medical institution. Another 12 victims received outpatient care. And 23 victims were hospitalized in specialized departments. 2 women rescued from the rubble died of their injuries during hospitalization.

19:19 – As a result of a series of combined missile attacks on Kharkiv, more than 100 houses were damaged, and more than 3,000 windows were broken. About 110 volunteers from 19 charitable organizations joined in eliminating the consequences of enemy shelling. On this day, volunteers managed to close more than 300 damaged windows.

21:13 – Explosions were heard in Kharkiv. Administration asked Kharkiv citizens to stay in shelters!

January 24:

Consequences of russian terror in the evening of January 23 aimed at the central part of Kharkiv city. 9 people were injured, including a 4-year-old child. A destroyed scientific institution, the S-300 missile hit the roof of the building. Residential buildings, office premises, cafes, pharmacies and other exclusively civilian infrastructure were damaged.

09:47 – As a result of the russian strikes on January 23, 29 victims - 14 men and 15 women - are in the city's medical facilities. Two women, 61 and 46 years old, as well as a 21-year-old man, suffered severe multiple injuries and are in intensive care units. Their condition is difficult. Children who were hospitalized at the medical facility are currently in a satisfactory condition and are being treated on an outpatient basis.

January 25:

Almost 51 hectares of territory were demined in the Kharkiv region in one week, from January 18 to January 24. 1,260 explosive objects were defused.

January 26:

44 cars from the Republic of Lithuania will be transferred to the Kharkiv region. This was announced during the visit of Kharkiv official Mykhailo Harnam to Lithuania at the invitation of the member of the European Parliament Piatras Aušträvičius. The Republic of Lithuania has been providing assistance to Ukraine, particularly the Kharkiv region, since the first days of the full-scale invasion of the russian federation.

From 10:30 a.m. till 11:30 a.m., a controlled destruction of explosive objects took place outside the city of Balakliya.

Unfortunately, a 61-year-old woman, who was injured during the russian shelling on January 23 and was in a critical condition in the hospital, died. To date, 11 people have died as a result of russian terror on January 23. Among the dead, there is the 8-year-old daughter and wife of a player of the Kharkiv rugby club, master of sports in rugby, player of the national rugby team of Ukraine, Volodymyr Mashkin. A girl and a woman died as a result of a missile hitting their house. Currently, Volodymyr himself is serving in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He volunteered for the army at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the russian federation.

January 27:

Military administration asks the residents of Kharkiv and the region: stay in shelters!

A 13-year-old girl, who was injured as a result of russian shelling of the village of Maly Burluk on January 17, died in the hospital. The enemy attacked the settlement with an aerial bomb. The girl was in a coma for a long time and received complex shrapnel wounds.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania Gabrielus Landsbergis visited Kharkiv. He noted that together with the European Union, the Government of the country plans to allocate funds for the construction of 6 shelters in Ukraine. One of them will be in the Kharkiv region.

No to war!

January 14, 2024
Dear all!

This time my message is based on the reports from Kharkiv regional military administration and the news of Kharkiv University.

January 7. Around 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., the enemy shelled the town of Vovchansk, Chuguyiv district. Residential buildings, a garage with a car and an enterprise were damaged. According to preliminary data, there were no casualties. Between 11:20 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., the enemy shelled the outskirts of the settlements of Lyptsi and Hlyboke, as well as Vesele and Slobozhanske of the Kharkiv district. A private house and a shop were damaged. There was no information about the victims. At 2:30 p.m., russian bandits attacked with missiles the village Nechvolodivka of the Kupyansk district. A private house was damaged. No information about the victims was received. At 21:46 russian bandits hit Kharkiv twice with S-300 missiles. Hits were also recorded in the Vovchansk community. Profile services continue to review places. At this moment, there are no casualties.

January 8. More than 18,000 consumers of the Kharkiv region remain without power supply due to hostilities. As a result of the full-scale invasion of the russian federation, 69 settlements were cut off in the Kharkiv region. The enemy fired dozens of rockets at peaceful cities and villages of Ukraine. As of now, 33 people have been injured, two people have died. Liquidation of the consequences of shelling is ongoing. In particular, in the Kharkiv region, around 7:00 russian occupiers launched a missile attack on the city of Zmiiv. The S-300 missiles were used. Hits were recorded in the private sector. Rescuers pulled a 63-year-old man and a 62-year-old woman from under the rubble. Another man was given first aid. At the same time, a 63-year-old woman died under the rubble.

January 10. From 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. inclusive, a controlled destruction of explosive objects took place outside the city of Balakliya. Controlled destruction of explosive objects took place in the villages of Nova Husarivka and Bakhtyn from 11:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 15:03 – The enemy attacked the village of Vilkhuvatka in the Kupyansk district with guided aerial bombs. A 48-year-old woman died as a result of the enemy strike. 10 private houses and a shop were damaged. As a result of the shelling, a fire broke out in the school. Emergency services continue to eliminate the consequences. 21:32 – “The occupiers strike. Residents of Kharkiv and the region - stay in shelters!” 21:54 – “The russian bandits hit the Kyiv district of Kharkiv with S-300 missiles. Inspection of the place of arrival by specialized services is ongoing. A civilian object was damaged. There is a car fire, regarding the victims - information is being established.” 21:09 – “According to preliminary data, six persons were injured as a result of the enemy attack. Doctors provide all necessary assistance.” 21:18 – “The number of victims has increased to nine people.”

January 11.

In the Kharkiv region, almost 41 hectares of territory were demined in a week. From January 4 to 10, 1,531 explosive objects were destroyed in the Kharkiv region. From 09:30 to 11:30, the controlled destruction of explosive objects took place outside the city of Balakliya, and from 09:50 to 10:20 in the area of the village of Nova Husarivka. In the village of Grakove from 12:00 to 12:30, a controlled destruction of an explosive object was carried out.

The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft — DFG) provided financial support to the joint German-Ukrainian project "Investigation of the possibility of using crystals for the extraction of electrons with an energy of 6 GeV in DESY" (2024-2025). The project is implemented on the basis of the Hrynenko-Shulga mechanism — a stochastic mechanism for the deflection of charged particles by a bent crystal. German reviewers of the project especially note the originality of the proposed method. Professors of the Faculty of Physics and Technology Mykola Shulga, Igor Kirillin, Serhiy Trofymanko, Mykola Bondarenko, and Maksym Malovitsya take part in the project.

January 13. From 12:00 to 12:30, a controlled destruction of explosive objects took place in the village of Ruska Lozova.

No to war!

January 7, 2024

Dear all!

First of all, I should like to thank the DAAD alumni and Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal community for the donations and humanitarian aid to Kharkiv hospital. Everything came in time and was what the volunteers asked about.

Second, my colleague wrote two about the attack of russian bandits on Kharkiv on January 2.

Nataliia Popova: “I ran to the bathroom. Near the door, the blast wave overtook me. So, the glass entered or cut everywhere: near the right ear, neck, arm, right leg. I managed to throw the baby into the bathtub after the first explosion in the city, under a sheet (see picture). There was a lot of glass on top, but the baby was not injured. In another picture, one can see a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life. A rescuer of the State Emergency Service takes my son out of the apartment after a rocket hit our yard in Kharkiv. And the baby clung to him and held on with both hands, because at this moment it was the safest place on earth. For a while, the boy went to another city. Unfortunately, his emotional state now does not allow him to stay in Kharkiv. My special gratitude to the psychologists of the State Emergency Service. I knew that they always work during strikes, but today I realized their importance. When the employees of the State Emergency Service took the child to the emergency car and brought me to the doctors, a young psychologist approached my son. This psychologist had a teddy bear and a "kinder surprise" candy in her bag, which she gave to the baby (now I know that this is how every child is supported). The psychologist talked with the child and was able to create her world for him in a few minutes. A world in which he stopped seeing wounded civilians, windows that kept falling, and police that supported everyone. When my son and I were defenseless, the emergency services, an ambulance, and the police arrived in a few minutes to everyone who was injured. Despite the threat of new strikes.”

January 3: Kharkiv regional military administration reported: “Today, around 11:00 a.m., the russian bandits struck with a guided aerial bomb near the village of Zolochiv, Bogodukhiv district. A bomb hitting the field was recorded. There were no casualties among the civilian population. “

January 4: “From December 28 to January 3, explosives deminers demined almost 47 hectares of territory in the Kharkiv region.”

No to war!

January 2, 2024

Dear all!

On January 2, at approximately 07:30 in the morning, russian bandits struck Kharkiv several times. As a result of the attack, more than 40 buildings were damaged. More than 1,200 windows were broken or damaged by blast waves. Due to significant damage to communications, 6 apartment buildings were left without heating.

Currently, they report about 47 victims. A 91-year-old woman died as a result of enemy fire. 16 people were taken to hospitals. 12 hospitalized victims have shrapnel injuries to their limbs, trunk, face, and head of various degrees of severity.

V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University suffered significant destruction іn a result of today's shelling. In particular, in the Main building, 550 windows of the old design were damaged, as well as 3 windows of new modification, which were installed recently; 187 windows were damaged in one of the University dormitories. One can see in a picture the dean of the Faculty of History, Professor Serhii Lytovchenko, repairing the window in his office.

Ukraine is asking for anti-aircraft defense while there is still someone to be protected!

December 30, 2023

Dear all!

December 30 has brought sad news from Kharkiv again.

At 15:27 the Kharkiv regional military administration reported: “Artillery shelling of Vovchansk Central District Hospital took place around midnight on December 29 (Vovchansk is the center of the district in Kharkiv region). There were no casualties. During the shelling, there were no patients in the hospital buildings. The medical personnel on duty at the emergency medical aid station were not injured. The local population did not seek medical help either.”

18:01 – “Attention residents of Kharkiv and the region: stay in shelters. The bandits strike!”

18:27 – “The russian bandits struck more than 6 times. In particular, they hit the central part of the city of Kharkiv. There is damage to civil infrastructure. Profile services work at the sites of hits.”

18:59 – “At this moment, doctors are providing assistance to 8 victims, all of whom are hospitalized. There is damage to civil infrastructure: a medical institution, multi-apartment residential buildings, shops and other public places, and transport. Exclusively civil infrastructure! All services are on-site.”

21:25 – “Around 19:00, the russian bandits launched at least 6 more rocket attacks on the city. In particular, a hotel building and a residential building were hit in the center. According to preliminary data, there are no casualties. As of now, 19 injured people are known, 10 of them have been hospitalized. Among them are two children aged 14 and 16. A foreign citizen was also injured. Mostly all victims are in medium and light condition, one woman is in serious condition. Also, as a result of the strikes, a medical institution, multi-apartment residential buildings, shops, public places and transport were damaged. One of the russian strikes damaged the kindergarten building.”

No to war!

December 29, 2023

Dear all!

I start my day by looking through the news from Kharkiv.

The first message today was at 04:18 from the dean of our Faculty (forwarded from the rector of the University): “Dear colleagues. We expect a massive missile attack on Ukraine at 05.30 - 07.00! Approximate volley of up to 70 missiles! Be prepared! And please warn your subordinates!”

At 05:21, Kharkiv regional military administration reported: “The bandits inflicted about 10 blows on the city of Kharkiv. Experts set the type of weapons. At the moment, there are no casualties. Information about the destruction is being established. Profile services work at the sites of hits.”

06:36: - “The occupiers strike again.”

06:55 – “Explosions again!”

07:36 – “As of now, as a result of the bandits' strikes on Kharkiv, one person has died, a man about 35 years old. Eight people were injured, doctors are providing assistance on the spot. Damage to the city's civilian infrastructure was recorded: a medical facility, warehouses, and civilian enterprises.”

09:58 – “More than 16,000 consumers remain without electricity in the Kharkiv region due to enemy shelling. A total of 67 settlements were cut off.”

10:52 – “Unfortunately, three men died as a result of the blows of the russian bandits. They were employees of one of the civilian enterprises. Another 11 people were injured.”

Then my colleague wrote: “Today the bandits shelled Kharkov all the night. They can’t do anything with our armed forces, so they hit the civilian population. This is their revenge. But we cannot be broken. The enemy must be wiped out!!”

No to war!

December 23, 2023

Dear all!

One can find below the overview of the reports from Kharkiv regional military administration since December 15, 2023.

"December 15. Today, an unknown explosive device detonated in the hands of a 15-year-old teenager in the Izyum district. The victim was hospitalized with injuries to both hands. On the night of December 15, the enemy launched a rocket attack on Kharkiv. A shop, garages, outbuildings and a private car were damaged. The law enforcement officers recovered the fragments of the S-300 missile. There was no information about the victims.

December 19. The enemy struck the civilian population of the Kupyansk district with artillery. A 55-year-old woman was injured as a result of shelling in the village of Kupyansk-Vuzlovy. Residential buildings were damaged. From 10:20 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., a controlled destruction of explosive objects took place outside the city of Balakliya.

December 20. Power supply was restored in two more villages of the Dergachyv community. Specialists managed to revive the villages of Lobanivka and Tokarivka Druga, which remained without electricity from February 24, 2022. In order to start restoration work in these settlements, energy workers first needed to restore the high-voltage line.

December 21. Kharkiv region. In total, there are about 4,500 shelters in the Kharkiv region. Special attention is paid to the restoration of shelters in settlements in the de-occupied territories. Thus, in the village of Shevchenkive, Kupyansk district, repair work was completed in a shelter located on the territory of a kindergarten. In the premises, the ventilation system, electrical networks were restored, the walls were painted and the floor was restored. Furnishing is currently underway. The Government of the Czech Republic has allocated $10 million in aid to strengthen medical facilities in the Kharkiv region. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Marek Svoboda, at a meeting with the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration. The support project is designed for three years.

December 22. The government of Saxony provided 11 electric generators and 3 minibuses for the needs of the Kharkiv region as part of the winter aid. The minibuses are planned to be used for the evacuation of the civilian population from the border, affected settlements of the Kharkiv region, as well as for the transportation of internally displaced persons. Power generators will be used at vital infrastructure facilities, such as hospitals and heating plants in the most affected population centers of the region. The International Organization for Migration plans to implement a project to restore agricultural activity in communities affected by the war. From 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., a controlled destruction of explosive objects took place near the village of Nova Husarivka, Izyum district. Over 1,700 explosive objects were destroyed in the Kharkiv region during the week. From December 14 to 20, inclusive, explosives deminers demined almost 37 hectares of territory. Gas supply was restored in the village of Virnopillya, Izyum district. The village left without gas in April 2022 due to the destruction of the gas distribution system by russian bandits. In order to restore gas supply, network routes were examined for the presence of mines, and damaged infrastructure facilities were restored. Specialists rebuilt 10 km of high-pressure gas pipelines, 9.6 km of low-pressure gas pipelines, eliminated the consequences of about 10 projectile hits on gas communications on the territory of the community.

No to war!

December 20, 2023

Dear all!

On December 14, the University site reported the following:

“It is with deep sadness that we inform you that Kyrylo Samoilenko was killed by russian bandits on December 5, 2023. Kyrylo died when he took part in the emergency evacuation of the wounded Ukrainian soldiers near the village of Verbove (in the Zaporizhzhya region). He was a student of the Faculty of History of Kharkiv University in 2019-2020. Since November 2020, he has been serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During the full-scale invasion of russia (since February 24, 2022), he was called up for military service and defended his Motherland in the ranks of the 15th brigade of operational assignment "Kara-Dag" of the National Guard of Ukraine. He held the position of commander of the department. He was only 22 years old... Kyrylo devoted his entire conscious life to the protection of Ukraine and its people. He was faithful and devoted to the Motherland, faithfully and honestly performed his military duty.“

No to war!

December 10, 2023

Dear all,

I suggest the following two issues as the most important among the news during the previous week.

On December 6, the site of Kharkiv University reported about the next sign of support from European colleagues. “The community of Kharkiv University expresses its sincere gratitude to the ECIU alliance, the ECIU4Ukraine initiative and together with the Lodz Polytechnic for their continuous support during this year, the meaningful events in which the employees of the Karazin University took part, and for the humanitarian aid in the form of two projectors, a laptop, a camera, a screen, network equipment and generator.“

On December 7, it was announced that Bohdan Kozhuhovskyi, a bachelor's graduate of the Faculty of Physics and Technology was awarded the medal "For Military Service to Ukraine" by the Decree of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi. In February 2022, Bohdan voluntarily went to defend our state. During this period he was wounded twice, and defended his BSc thesis. Now, he continues his military service. We are proud of his courage.

No to war!

December 3, 2023

Dear all!

I am happy not to report sad news.

First, according to the decree of the President of Ukraine, for personal courage and selfless actions shown in the defense of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, selfless performance of military duty, Oleksandr Kashab, 1st year master's student of the Faculty of Physics and Technology, was awarded the Order "For Courage" of the 3rd degree.

Oleksandr joined the army as a volunteer over a year ago, despite the fact that students are exempt from military duty during their studies. He is the son of a graduate (and researcher) of the Faculty of Physics and Technology, a past winner of the All-Ukrainian Student Olympiads in Physics.

Secondly, on November 24-26, 2023, the XXXII Kharkiv City Tournament of Young Physicists was held online. 9 teams became its participants. Despite the difficult conditions, the event aroused considerable interest and united scientists, teachers, team leaders, students and pupils who are currently in different countries of the world and cities of Ukraine. Among the 50 participants, during the preparation and the competition, 8 students were in European countries and USA, 6 — in different regions of Ukraine, and 36 students — in Kharkiv. The basis of the jury of the tournament was made up of teachers and students of the Faculty of Physics and Technology and the Faculty of Physics of Kharkiv University, who in the past were winners of international student and student physics tournaments. The jury was traditionally headed by Professor of the Faculty of Physics and Technology Igor Girka.

Third, on November 25, the Faculty of Chemistry of Kharkiv University held the XXV I. I. Mechnikov (Nobel Prize winner Illya Mechnikov studied at Kharkiv University) Chemical and Biological Tournament (chemical part) for schoolchildren of 8-11 years in a remote format. More than 100 schoolchildren from Kharkiv and other cities of Ukraine, in particular from Dnipro and Chernihiv, took part in the tournament. The tournament consisted of two stages: theoretical and practical. Pupils who scored the highest number of points are awarded Certificates of Honor.

No to war!

November 26, 2023

Dear all!

On November 23 1804, the decree was signed by emperor Oleksander I which started Kharkiv University. Usually, celebrating events are devoted to this date. However, the war changed everything. Hard battles cause new victims among the University community. This week the site of the University contains sad news.

“It is with deep sadness that we inform you that on November 19, 2023, the life of the defender of Ukraine, a student of the Faculty of Ecology Andriy Udovenko, ended in a Kyiv hospital. He was a tank commander, a junior sergeant of the mechanized brigade. On October 24, 2023, during a combat mission in the Avdiyevka direction, Andriy was seriously wounded, he was treated, he was operated on, the doctors did everything they could... He was 28 years old.

In 2021, Andriy Udovenko joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he has defended his Motherland with dignity. By the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 332/2022, for personal courage and selfless actions shown in the defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, loyalty to the military oath he was awarded the medal "For Military Service to Ukraine".

In 2023, Andriy Udovenko entered Kharkiv University, choosing the educational program "Agromanagement and digital technologies in agribusiness". Despite carrying out combat missions, he joined the classes and was very worried about not being able to attend all the classes.

Everyone who knew Andriy remembers him as a bright, positive and very kind person. He is survived by his 4-year-old son, mother, sister, and many friends.

We express our sincere condolences to the family, friends and relatives of the deceased. Low bow and respect to the Hero! Bright and eternal memory to Andriy!”

No to war!

November 19, 2023
Dear all!

Yesterday, the website of the University announced the sad news. "It is with deep sadness that we inform you that on November 12, 2023, while performing a combat mission in the Bakhmut direction, a combat medic, a junior sergeant of the 92nd Brigade named after Ataman Ivan Sirko, and a student of the Faculty of Biology Andrii Volodymyrovych Bondarenko was killed (11.12.1996 - 12.11. 2023)."

My colleague, Professor of the University's Faculty of Biology Olya Bevkh, comments: "On November 19, in the city of Lozova (Kharkiv region), a farewell will be held for the fallen Hero, combat medic, junior sergeant Andrii Bondarenko.

For us, he is just a student of the Department of Zoology, who was doing graduate research under the guidance of our colleagues. The boy, who was fond of biology, interrupted his studies to serve in the Armed Forces, but then returned to his native faculty to finally complete that diploma. From the first hours of the full-scale invasion of the damned russia, he was once again on the defensive. First, it was the defense of Kharkiv. But he still planned to finish his diploma when he returned, so as not to upset the supervisor.

For someone, he is a friend, colleague or acquaintance. Cheerful, kind, sincere, responsible. A person with whom there was always something to talk about is actually a smart biologist. A person with whom it was always calm, because Andrii definitely knew how to keep everything under control. Maybe that's why he was a combat medic. Thanks to the ability to concentrate and do everything quickly, Andrii saved many of his brothers. Over the past year, he himself received many injuries more than once, but he always returned to the place where it was most difficult: Chuguyiv, Kupyansk, Svatove directions and battles for Bakhmut.

Bright memory to you, Andrii! We are proud of you, Friend! You were so young, lived so little, but did so much! Low bow and respect! You are forever a part of the Faculty of Biology."

No to war!

November 12, 2023

Dear all! I am happy to announce that nobody from Kharkiv University was killed in the war during the last week despite everyday shelling of civilian objects in Kharkiv by russian bandits.

On November 6, demining was carried out in the Chuguyiv district. From 12.00 to 12.30, sappers carried out controlled destruction of explosive objects near the village of Grakove.

On November 7, a 42-year-old civilian was blown up by an anti-personnel mine "Pelyustka" in the village of Rubizhne, Chuguyiv District. The man stepped on the mine in his own yard. He was taken to a hospital with shrapnel wounds to his arms and legs.

On November 8, a joint meeting of representatives of the Project Expedite Justice organization with farmers of the region was held. It was devoted to the assistance of international partners to Kharkiv farmers to record the crimes of the occupiers. According to preliminary calculations, the russian occupiers caused losses to the agricultural sector of the Kharkiv region for more than 0.5 billion euro. As a result of the hostilities, almost 600,000 agricultural lands were mined, 54 livestock farms were affected, and almost 1,100 pieces of machinery and equipment were damaged or destroyed.

On November 9, sappers worked in the Izyum district. From 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., controlled detonations were carried out in the villages of Nova Husarivka, Shchurivka, Bayrak.

140 hectares of territory were demined during the week in the Kharkiv region. From November 2 to November 8, 4,669 explosive objects were destroyed.

No to war!

November 5, 2023

Dear all!

Some people have got used to the war. However, Ukrainian soldiers die every day defending and liberating Ukraine. No doubt, they die defending Poland, Lithuania… and all of Europe as well.

As far as the Kharkiv region is concerned, the sappers of the joint detachment of the State Emergency Situations Service continue to demine the de-occupied territory of the region. 34 pyrotechnic groups of the State Emergency Service, 171 sappers and 74 units of equipment are working. During the week, 271 departures were made, and 763 pieces of ammunition were disposed of.

Kharkiv farmers finish sowing winter crops. Farms in the region sowed nearly 223,000 hectares with winter crops. In total, it is planned to sow winter wheat, barley, and rye on an area of 246,600 hectares. Sowing of rapeseed is also underway - it was sown on an area of 13.8 thousand hectares, which is 30% more than the forecast.

On October 31, Deputy heads of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration held a meeting with representatives of the International Organization for Migration, mission in Ukraine. During the event, the plans of international humanitarian organizations regarding the implementation of sustainable solutions in the region were discussed.

A man born in 1963 blew himself up in his own yard with an unknown explosive device in the village of Velyka Komyshuvaha of the Barvinki district, Kharkiv region. The victim was hospitalized, doctors are providing all the necessary assistance.

On November 1, a 35-year-old local resident stepped on an explosive device, probably "Pelyustka", in his own yard in the village of Pisky-Radkivski, Izyum district. The victim with a shrapnel wound on the left leg was taken to a hospital.

On November 3, the head of Kharkiv RMA held a working meeting with the Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They discussed the security situation in the region and outlined further steps of cooperation. "I thank the people and the Government of the Netherlands for the significant assistance to our state, which Kharkiv region feels particularly strongly as a frontline region, as well as for the willingness to deepen our cooperation, in particular in the matter of rebuilding the region's critical infrastructure," said Oleg Synegubov, the head of Kharkiv RMA.

On the night of November 3, russian bandits launched a massive attack on Kharkiv and its suburbs: at least 10 russian drones struck civilian infrastructure. In particular, the building of the Kharkiv College of Transport Technologies was destroyed. The building was built in 1915 as an elementary comprehensive school.

On November 4, Kharkiv figure skaters Maria Pinchuk and Nikita Pogorelov won the "bronze" of international competitions. The international ranking tournament of the Challenger series takes place in Kazakhstan from November 3 to 5. In ice dancing after the rhythmic program, the athletes took sixth place, but the flawless performance of the free dance allowed them to climb to the third step of the podium.

A 51-year-old civilian was injured as a result of an explosion of an unknown explosive device in the village of Cherkassy Tyshki. According to preliminary data, a man tried to disassemble an explosive device in his own yard. In an extremely serious condition, with multiple shrapnel injuries of the upper and lower limbs and other explosive injuries, he was hospitalized.

Ukraine does not give up as the Kremlin suggests. However, our neighbor does not feel any problem from the fact that more than three hundred thousands of their militaries died in the war, while Ukraine does not possess such a huge human resource. The active phase of the war is under way for more than 619 days. The democratic world must find a solution to avoid the war being the war till the last Ukrainian.

No to war!

October 28, 2023

Dear all!

This message is about what has happened in the Kharkiv region this week.

On October 22, a 39-year-old woman was wounded as a result of russian shelling of the village of Kurylivka, Kupyansk district, Kharkiv region, at around 11:00 a.m. She was hospitalized and provided with all necessary medical assistance. As a result of enemy fire, a private house and a fence were damaged.

On October 24, two civilian men, 57 and 50 years old, were killed as a result of russian shelling of the village Podoly, Kupyansk district. According to preliminary data, the russian army struck with artillery. An outbuilding was destroyed, a fence was damaged, and 2 cars were damaged.

On October 25, a man blew up with an explosive device in the Izyum district, Kharkiv region. The event happened in a field near the village of Yaremivka. As a result of the explosion, a 57-year-old man died.

On October 26, Kharkiv State Academic Ukrainian Drama Theater named after Shevchenko was announced to be preparing for a new project: "Shevchenko 2.0". It is implemented thanks to the victory in the grant program "Stabilization Fund for Culture and Education 2023 of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and the Goethe-Institut".

On October 27, the first machine in Ukraine for preparing soil for demining was announced to be handed over to the rescuers of the Kharkiv region. The machine was developed in Kharkiv, it passed certification of compliance and proved its effectiveness in practice. A special advantage is that this equipment is easy to use, maintain and repair. Moreover, it is produced in Kharkiv and is much cheaper than foreign devices. The machine is not inferior to foreign analogues either in terms of efficiency, speed, or quality of passing areas where demining is taking place.

The Kharkiv region military administration decided to carry out the forced evacuation of families with children from the villages of Kupyansk district, which are under constant enemy fire. There are 275 children in these villages. In addition, children will be prohibited from entering the specified territories. What is important: children can be evacuated necessarily with at least one parent or other guardian. All evacuees are provided with housing and support from international humanitarian organizations.

The russian bandits shelled the village of Kindrashivka, Kupyansk district. A 67-year-old woman was injured as a result of an enemy strike. She was hospitalized with a shrapnel injury to her thigh. Doctors provided all the necessary assistance.

Over 4,000 explosive objects were defused in the Kharkiv region during the week. From October 19 to 25 inclusive, 136 hectares of territory were demined in the Kharkiv region.

No to war!

October 24, 2023

On October 17, 2023, Yevhen Didenko, a senior teacher of Kharkiv University, died while defending Ukraine in the ranks of Armed Forces.

After graduating from the Faculty of Computer Science in 2010, and later post-graduate studies, Yevhen stayed on teaching at the Department of System Modeling and Technologies, Faculty of Computer Sciences. He proved himself not only as a talented and responsible teacher, but also as a caring and sensitive friend. Not a single faculty event was held without him. In the first days of the large-scale russian invasion, Yevhen volunteered to defend the country in the ranks of the territorial defense of Kharkiv, then became a fighter of the special unit "Kraken". Yevhen Didenko was buried in his native Zaporizhzhia.

No to war!

October 22, 2023

Dear all!

I am very glad to have a lot of work at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, as well as with my students of Khakriv University. This does not leave much time for reading news in details. However, on weekend, I have to summarize the week.

On October 15, 14-year-old boy blew up on a hazardous object in the village Kam`yanka in the Izyum district of Kharkiv region. He is hospitalized with a wound, receives the necessary help from doctors.
On October 16, a 72-year-old man was blown up by an unknown explosive device in the city of Izyum. He was taken to a hospital with injuries. Medics provide assistance to the victim.

On October 17, a tractor was blown up by an unknown explosive device near the village of Pisky-Radkivski, Izyum district. The tractor driver died of his injuries on the spot. A fire started as a result of the detonation.

On October 18 in the morning, russian bandits attacked the Industrial district of Kharkiv city. According to the report of the Regional Center of Emergency Medical Assistance, the victim, a 67-year-old civilian woman, received shrapnel wounds and was hospitalized at a medical institution. There is damage to the power grid. Emergency services specialists are working on the spot and recording the consequences of yet another act of russian terror. Around 2:00 p.m., the enemy launched artillery strikes on the village of Odnorobivka. As a result, three two-story and two private houses, power and gas networks were damaged. Fortunately, there were no casualties.

On October 19, Kharkiv regional military administration reported that 2,667 explosive objects were discovered and neutralized in Kharkiv region from October 13 till October 18. Over 212 hectares of territory were demined in the Kharkiv region in one week.

As a result of enemy shelling of the city of Vovchansk, two local residents were wounded – men aged 74 and 69. They received mine-explosive and shrapnel injuries. Doctors provide the victims with the necessary assistance. As a result of the shelling, a large-scale fire broke out in a private yard.

On October 21, around 10:15 p.m., the enemy launched a rocket attack on the "Nova Poshta" terminal (mail office) in the urban-type village of Korotych. It is known about 6 dead and 16 wounded. All the victims are employees of the enterprise. As a result of an enemy attack, a fire broke out on an area of about 300 square meters. The terminal is almost completely destroyed, trucks are damaged. Specialists of the explosive management removed the fragments of the S-300 missile. Investigators, together with criminologists and forensic experts, are conducting an examination of the bodies of the dead. The shelling was carried out by two S-300 type missiles from the territory of the Belgorod region of the russian federation. The postal workers did not have a chance to run to the shelter in time, because the siren sounded a second before the explosion.

Around 7 o'clock in the morning on October 22, the enemy shelled the city of Kupyansk. Three people were wounded. A 15-year-old girl and a 63-year-old woman are hospitalized in serious condition. A 17-year-old boy is in a moderate condition. Residential buildings are hit.

No to war!

October 15, 2023

Dear all!

Farmers of the Kharkiv region sowed almost 169 thousand hectares with winter crops. Farms in the region continue to harvest late grain crops, prepare the soil and sow winter crops. Next year, 246,600 hectares are planned to be sown with winter crops, which is 8.5% more than in 2022. Of these, more than 210,000 hectares have already been cultivated, and sowing was carried out on an area of 168,700 hectares.

Kharkiv native won the World Championship in hundred cell checkers. The tournament was held from September 28 to October 13 in Curacao. Grandmaster Yuriy Anikeev in the classic game went through the tournament undefeated, won 7 games and drew 11. As a result, the sportsman scored 25 points and took first place.

On the night of October 15, russian bandits hit a private house in the Izyum district of the Kharkiv region, killing two people. The enemy struck the village of Druzhelyubivka of the Izyum district with a guided aerial bomb around 2:30 am. A private house was destroyed, and a fire broke out. 2 people died - a 57-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman. Another woman was wounded by shrapnel and is in the hospital. The photo can be seen on the website of the online newspaper "Ukrainian Pravda" (https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2023/10/15/7424190/)

Ukraine lives, works hard, goes in for sports, and Ukrainian civilians suffer every day from russian shelling and mines.

No to war! No to terrorism!

October 13, 2023

Dear all!

These days, all the newspapers naturally write about outbreak of terrorism in Israel. Ukrainian president Zelenskii expressed our condolences to the people of Israel in this regard. Ukrainians, probably, understand the grief better than others.

Meanwhile, the war is under way in Ukraine. I do not know any figures about victims among Ukrainian militaries. However, civilians are being killed in the Kharkiv region by russian bandits every day despite the region being almost liberated.

Specifically, a 47-year-old civilian man was blown up on October 12 by an anti-personnel mine in a field near his native village in the Izyum district of Kharkiv region. The mine was installed by russians during the durable occupation of Izyum. The man was hospitalized with explosive injuries. Doctors provide him with all the necessary help.

The gas transport infrastructure (namely, two gas distribution stations) was damaged on October 12 in Kharkiv region in the result of russian shelling. The fires at both facilities were extinguished, the work of the stations did not stop. There were no dead or injured in this accident.

Russian mine took the life of another civilian resident of the Kharkiv region today. A gasoline truck was blown up by an enemy anti-tank mine around 11:00 a.m. near the village of Yavirske, Kharkiv region. Unfortunately, the driver of the car died.

No to war!

October 11, 2023

Dear all!

The civilian population of Kharkiv region continues to suffer from russian mines and unexploded ammunition. Today, two young men were blown up by an unknown explosive device in a field near the village of Grakove (it was under russian occupation for several months). Both died from their injuries.

No to war!

October 6, 2023

Dear all! I was so happy to have nothing sad to report about in this diary for several days.

Today, on October 6, I have to report on russian shelling in Kharkiv as it was yesterday.

05:45 - Kharkiv regional military administration warned: “Attention, the occupiers are striking. Residents of Kharkiv and the region, stay in shelters!”

06:18 – “There is preliminary information about hits in the Kyiv and Osnovyan districts of Kharkiv. Emergency services are working on the ground, there is damage to cars and buildings (pictures can be found here: https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2023/10/6/7422991/). The information is being clarified. Stay in shelters until the air alert ends!”

07:45 – “A 10-year-old child was found under the rubble; unfortunately, the boy died. Previously, 16 people were injured, including an 11-month-old child. Rescuers are working at the site of the impact, sorting out the debris.”

12:52 – “A total of 30 people were injured: 20 men and 9 women aged 18 to 85; and an 11-month-old boy - the brother of the dead child - was also injured. The condition of most of the wounded, including the child, is average. There are also several "light" patients. They were assisted on the spot. Mostly, the injured persons have explosive injuries, shrapnel wounds of arms and legs, face, hematomas. Two persons have an acute reaction to stress.

As a result of today’s rocket strike in the central part of the city of Kharkiv, 2 people were killed: a 10-year-old boy and a 67-year-old woman.”

No to war!

October 5, 2023

On October 5, 2023, russian bandits committed another war crime in the village of Groza, Kharkiv region. Around 1:15 p.m., the Russian military shelled a cafe and a store where there were many civilians. According to preliminary information, the russians attacked the village with an "Iskander" type missile. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, a memorial service was held in the cafe for a deceased compatriot. A total of 51 people were killed, including a 6-year-old boy.

There are 6 women, most of whom are over 50 years old, and a 55-year-old man among the injured. All of them are hospitalized in regional hospitals. Two women are in a serious condition, doctors assess the condition of the rest of the injured as medium. Unfortunately, one of the wounded died in the hospital.

A terrorist attack by the russian militaries on the village of Groza became the bloodiest crime committed by the russians in the Kharkiv region since the start of the full-scale invasion. Three days, from October 6 to 8, have been declared days of mourning in the Kharkiv region.

Eternal memory to the victims of russian terror. Sincere condolences to their relatives and friends!

October 1, 2023

Dear all!

The first Sunday of October is traditionally Teacher's Day in Ukraine. On this occasion, Kharkiv University invited young Kharkiv citizens to watch and (in some cases) take part in presentations of the University Faculties. The event was held in the University shelter for security reasons. The Faculty of Physics and Technology also presented numerous physical demonstrations. It was noisy, funny and interesting. Each of the visitors chose an experiment to their taste. Someone was mesmerized by the railsotron, someone by a chain fountain or a non-Newtonian liquid, and someone discovered the secrets of radioactive decay.

I start every day by looking through messages from my friends who stay in Kharkiv and official reports of Kharkiv military administration. The war is under way not only where Ukrainian soldiers resist russian bandits and step by step liberate our land from invaders. Every day, russian missiles kill civilians in Ukraine as a whole and in the Kharkiv region in particular. This night was not an exclusion. On the night of October 1, around 1:00 a.m., the enemy launched a missile attack on Kharkiv from the S-300. The "arrivals" of three missiles were recorded. It is clarified that the hits were on the territory of a civilian enterprise, there was a fire. The authorities do not provide any information about the victims. During Saturday, the enemy shelled the villages, which are situated along the border with artillery, mortars and other weapons.

No to war!

September 20, 2023

Dear all!

Two days ago, my friend Yurij Sapronov shared the message presented below:

“Fear is a very strong feeling. Very! During the 569 days of the war, I was scared many times. It was terrible on February 27, 2022, when russian Tigers and KamAZs passed along Derevyanka Street 270 m from me. And I saw them from the roof of the house with a Saiga rifle in my hands and in a bulletproof vest with a helmet through binoculars and thought what to do if they made a right turn towards me from Derevyanka Street into the courtyards of private houses.
It was terrible in the evening of February 27, 2022, when two Russian Urals entered the golf club after getting lost (he is the owner of this golf club).
It was terrible on February 28, 2022, when I saw the corpses of Kharkiv residents after being hit by russian missiles before the ambulance arrived. A few missile fragments then hit the door of my jeep.
It was terrible in April 2022 when I was taking necessary things to the front line in the area of the village of Ruska Lozova. Then I jumped face down 3 or 4 times in landings and woods with soldiers after mortar and artillery fire.
It was terrible on April 22, 2022, when a rocket flew into a neighboring house, and we extinguished the burning roof.
But! Today I experienced the scariest moment. I remembered how a low-flying russian military plane used to drop bombs or launch missiles over Sokilnyky (a microdistrict in Kharkiv). It happened five times in the first decade of March. Creepy sound and very low! Today was so scary at Warsaw airport. I'll get used to it. I will learn again, like learning to walk or read. Someday I will get used to low-flying peaceful planes.”

No to war!

September 17, 2023

Dear all!

On September 16, I had a talk with my colleague Professor Vilina Peresadko. She is the dean of the Faculty of Geology and Geography at Kharkiv University. We spoke about some questions in arranging the education these days. She was very glad to tell me about her visit to Romania. She was there to evaluate the reports of her professors who worked there for a few months in the framework of academic exchange programs. Both Vilina and Romanian colleagues highly estimated the scientific results reported at a local conference.

However, after the conference, Vilina talked with her sister who stays in Kharkiv. The sister told her about four missiles which exploded near her apartment. She and her relatives are alive. But the explosions sounded so like the building jumped.

Kharkiv regional military administration reported in this respect. “The russian bandits fired five S-300 missiles at Kharkiv. According to the preliminary information of the medics, five civilians were injured, the condition of the victims is light to medium, there is no threat to life.”

Along with this, the administration reported about several russian attacks with missiles not to the city itself but to the Kharkiv region. “russian occupiers hit a civilian car with a guided anti-tank missile near the village of Strelecha (it is situated to the north of Kharkiv in five kilometers to the borderline). The man and woman who were in the car were killed on the spot. Another man was injured and hospitalized.”

They shot on a civilian car with a GUIDED missile!

No to war!

September 11, 2023

Dear all!

When talking about the victims of the present war among the Kharkiv University community, one can say more or less precisely only about those among the University staff. The information about the victims among the graduates of the University comes only if the parents or classmates let the University know. More than a year the University did not know about the death of its student Artem Kyparenko. The information came today only.

“It is with deep sadness that we inform you that on May 15, 2022, Artem Kyparenko, a student of the Faculty of History of the Karazin University, died in the battles for the Kharkiv Region near the village of Ruski Tyshki. In 2016–2020, Artem studied at the Faculty of History. From the first day of the full-scale war, he went to the front. Classmates and professors remember Artem as an actor in a children's theater, a sensitive, kind and always smiling man, he loved literature and wrote poems.”

No to war!

September 6 , 2023

Dear all,

Sad news came to the University.

On March 22, 2023, our graduate Ihor Grechikhin died near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, when a projectile hit the trench where he and his comrades were carrying the body of a fallen comrade from the battlefield.

Ihor was a 2000 graduate of the Faculty of Biology of Karazin University. He was a volunteer of the 225th battalion of the 127th brigade in Kharkiv, later on - a rifleman, a freelance chief signalman, and temporarily performed the duties of a platoon chief sergeant. He was born in Kharkiv. After studying at the secondary school, he entered the Faculty of Biology, where he specialized in the Department of Mycology and Phytoimmunology.

Oleksandr Akulov, acting head of the department, recalls: "I knew him from the days of his studying at school, when he was just planning to enter the Faculty of Biology. Then we had many joint expeditions. Then he became my student... Formally, I am not much older than him, but it was I who managed his work. His interests included mycology and zoology. Igor's thesis was devoted to the study of the fungal disease of barley. But he spent a lot of time in the village of Nesterivka, setting up a camp for marmot research... He graduated from the university in 2000, and later got married. Had two small children."

In March 2022, Ihor Grechikhin went to serve as a volunteer for the territorial defense of the city of Kharkiv, his call sign was "Patron". He took part in the liberation of the Kharkiv region, and was later transferred to the Bakhmut region.

On May 5, 2023, for the personal courage shown in the defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, selfless performance of military duty, he was awarded the Order "For Courage" III degree (posthumously).

No to war!

September 2, 2023

Dear all!

September 1 is the day when the academic year starts in Ukraine. This year is the second when it starts without a fest ceremony unlike it was before February 24, 2022.

The war is under way. Nevertheless, more than 3,700,000 Ukrainian children started the new school year today. The daughter of my colleague Professor Andriy Sotnikov starts her school life in School No. 62 in Pyatyhatky, Kharkiv. The school has two buildings: for younger and for older children. The second one suffered from russian missiles and has no shelter, there the lessons will go on-line. The first one does not suffer from bombardments and has a small shelter, there younger children (first four years) will study in mixed format.

Since many schools in Kharkiv do not have any shelter, the city government prepared sixty equipped classrooms for training in the subway. Sound insulation, proper air circulation and lighting were made in the classrooms to ensure the educational process. In addition, meals for schoolchildren are organized in the subway at the expense of the city budget. If necessary, psychologists and doctors will provide the help at the stations. The State Service for Emergency Situations approved the training in the subway and provided the appropriate permits.

No to war!

August 25, 2023

Dear all!

It was April 5, 2022, when the first boxes with humanitarian aids came from Bruchsal to Kharkiv hospital. All these 18 months, people from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" are doing their best to support the hospital according to the needs announced by the hospital volunteers.

I am very thankful to these people for the support. They did not get tired from the war. They are the members of the team with millions participants from all over the world who are staying with Ukraine in this war.

Thank you so much!

No to war!

August 22, 2023
Dear all!

Awful news was reported by TV channels about russian shelling on Chernihiv, where seven persons were killed and more than one hundred persons were wounded on August 19. Air alarm is a common event in every Ukrainian city every day. Ukrainian authorities report on losses from russian side and do not report anything about our military losses. However, it is clear that battles cannot be without losses. Yesterday, the University site reported on one more victim within the University community.

“It is with deep sadness that we inform you that associate professor Yehor Zhelnin died heroically on August 17, 2023. Yehor was the captain of the medical service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in reserve. He joined the ranks of the territorial defense of the Kharkiv region on the first day of the full-scale invasion. For the last three years of his life, he worked as an associate professor at the Department of Stomatology, Faculty of Medicine. He was respected by students, colleagues and friends. Yehor was a very caring person, responsible, sensitive, always smiling and a sincere friend, colleague, and family man.

We express our sincere condolences to the family, friends and relatives of the deceased. Low bow and respect to our Hero! Bright and eternal memory!”

No to war!

August 18, 2023

Dear all,

today, I present the report of my colleague Oleksiy Golubov on his visit to a village in Kharkiv region.

“I visited a friend, who lives near Balakliya, some 10 km from the line of the maximum advance of the Russian army. She showed me her village, we walked together in the fields, we discussed our scientific work, and then she noted: ´Whatever we are speaking about, we are still speaking about the war´. Unfortunately, that's true. The village is beautiful, but the scars of war are everywhere! When there was no shelling of my friend's village, but the internet and sometimes also electricity were absent, my friend's parents found no other entertainment than to sit in wooden armchairs in their vegetable garden and to observe shelling of other villages on the horizon.”

No to war!

August 15, 2023

Dear all!

Pyatyhatky is a small scientific district to the North of Kharkiv, where the buildings of National Science Center “Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology”, as well as those of School of Physics and Technology of Kharkiv University are situated, where I was born, studied at secondary school and the University, and haved worked since 1985 until now. My colleague, Professor of Kharkiv University Oleksiy Golubov, worked last months at the University of Heidelberg. Below, Oleksiy reports about his visit to Pyatyhatky last week:

“For the first time since the start of the full-scale war, I visited Pyatikhatki - a small scientific district in the North of Kharkiv. Here, I went to primary school. Later, also here, I went to the university - first as a student, then as an instructor. My mother worked here at the hospital for 25 years, and my father still works here trying to repair Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology after 2022 heavy shelling by the Russian army. And you know, despite some heavy destruction, the district is still lovely and lively, full of people and all in bloom. Everything will be Ukraine!”

It was very hard for me to see the places where I spent my childhood which were destroyed by the war. Along with this I should like to stress the Oleksiy’s optimism and trust in a happy future.

No to war!

August 7, 2023

Dear all!

How happy I was yesterday when I had nothing to report about the victims of the war within the staff and students of Kharkiv University. Sad news came today. Oleksandr Nevgasimov, a junior researcher of the research project, an engineer of the Department of Experimental Physics of the Faculty of Physics, was killed in the battles against the russian invaders for a free and independent Ukraine.

No to war!

August 6, 2023

Dear all,

I use to switch off my phone when I go to sleep. Consequently, I switch it on every morning. When switching it on I cannot avoid looking through the new messages. Every day, I read the reports of Kharkiv regional military administration: “Dear Kharivites, do not ignore air alarm signals, stay in shelters. The enemy strikes at…”

A 58-year-old woman was killed and a 66-year-old man was injured and hospitalized to a clinic as a result of enemy shelling in the village of Podola in the Kupyansk district, Kharkiv region today. A private house was destroyed, a fire broke out in an outbuilding.

Some of my colleagues have to come back to Kharkiv since their savings are running out. However, staying in Kharkiv is far from being safe. Those colleagues whose status makes it possible live in the west of Ukraine or abroad.

These days are filled with concerns about how many newcomers will be the students of the University this year. Preliminary, it looks like their number will be even larger than last year when speaking about my School of Physics and Technology.

I am happy not to report today about victims among the staff and students of the University during the last days.

No to war!

July 30, 2023

Dear all!

On July 25, the awarding ceremony for the winners of the International Tournament of Young Physicists, which started on July 19, was held at the University of Kohsar Murree (Pakistan).

The International Young Physicists Tournament (IYPT: https://www.iypt.org/) is one of the most prestigious international physics competitions among school students, which takes place every year in different countries of the world and gathers schoolchildren from all continents.

At the IYPT-23, Ukraine was represented by the collective team of Kharkiv lyceum students, who in January won the All-Ukrainian Tournament of Young Physicists. For the sixth year in a row, the "Moment of Impulse" team returns home from IYPTs with medals. This year, Kharkiv lyceum students won silver awards among 14 participating teams.

Because of the war, the Ukrainian team prepared for the Tournament staying in different countries (both students and teachers). The key person who prepared the team (Professor Zakhar Majzelis) could not accompany the team in Pakistan and advised the team from Kharkiv. To pay the fee and transport of the team to Pakistan and back, former Ukrainian students who played in the Tournaments in previous years collected the money.

No to war!

July 17, 2023

On July 15, 2023, Ihor Polyakov, a graduate of the Faculty of Sociology of Karazin University, died. Ihor died from a severe wound received during a combat mission. Major Ihor Polyakov was the deputy commander of the battalion of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade named after the chieftain Ivan Sirko.

In 2010, Ihor graduated with honors from the University, majoring in Political Science. He was one of the best students of his year, participated in the work of the student scientific society of the faculty, student self-government. In the same year, he entered graduate school.

Since 2015, he voluntarily joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was the commander of a tank crew, effectively defending Kharkiv during a full-scale russian invasion in February 2022.

In June 2022, he was transferred to the position of deputy commander of the battalion of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade. Took an active part in the autumn counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region and in other directions.

He was awarded the honorary badge of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Steel Cross", the medal "For the Defense of Kharkiv" and a number of other awards.

The Karazin community expresses its deepest condolences to the family, relatives, associates and friends of the deceased. Eternal memory to the defenders of Ukraine!

Juliett Manoilo, who studied with Ihor has written: “There are people about whom you think that nothing will ever happen to them, as if there is some kind of dome above them... That's how Ihor Polyakov was in my imagination. Brave, smart and confident. But sadly it happened. Igor and I studied at the same department, then we were in graduate school, then we crossed paths at our first job, then we left graduate school, and later together, we participated in the Revolution of Dignity. Rest in peace, hero! Thank you!”

No to war!

July 16, 2023

Dear all,

I start every day by looking through the news from Kharkiv. This Sunday morning was not the exception.

First, I have seen the message from my friend about three explosions in Kharkiv at night. Second message from another friend corrected the first one since one more missile targeted my native city. Kharkiv regional military administration reported in the morning: “Russian bandits launched four S-300 air defense missiles at Kharkiv. They shot from the territory of the Belgorod region (a city in russia which is the nearest to Kharkiv) at about 1:30 a.m. Two missiles exploded in the air. The other two missiles hit the ground in the stadium and the road surface. The windows of the 4-story building were broken. There was no information about the victims.”

Second, another friend of mine, Serhiy Lobas, who is a farmer, sent the pictures from his lands. “We shall resist! We shall endure! We shall win! We continue to harvest. ´Agronomist´ storks add romantics to the wheat field! They help and inspire! Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine!”

It is in place to remind one more russian crime. They leave mines on the territories which were temporarily occupied. Pyrotechnic units of Ukraine demined almost 5.4 thousand hectares of territories, 307 hectares of agricultural land, more than 875 km of highways, almost 180 km of railway tracks, 2.4 thousand km of power lines, more than 270 km of gas pipelines and 329 objects of critical infrastructure after February 24, 2022 in Kharkiv region. More than 97,000 explosive objects were detected and neutralized.

No to war!

July 9, 2023

Dear all!

The russian war against Ukraine has been under way for 500 days already. I left my house 490 days ago! These 500 days convincingly demonstrated that there were only two “crimes” of my Motherland. First, Ukrainians do want to live according to their will rather than that of the neighbor. Second, Ukraine is the only country in the world which refused nuclear weapons unilaterally.

There were two events last week in the territory of the Kharkiv region to pay your attention to. First, mass and cultural and entertainment events were forbidden in Kharkiv for these 500 days because of the danger of russian shelling. The ban was canceled on July 7. However, it is permitted to arrange the events only in those halls that meet safety standards. Specifically, the buildings should have shelters. In particular, traditional offline studying in educational institutions was permitted to resume. Note that minor schools and Universities have shelters.

This first news from Kharkiv is positive. However, it does not mean that the war is over. The war is far from finished still. And the Kharkiv region suffers from shelling civilian objects every day. An explosion rang out in the city of Pervomaisky, Kharkiv region, on July 4 at around 1:35 p.m. According to preliminary information, the shelling was carried out with a high-explosive projectile. The glazing of 8 high-rise buildings was damaged. On the first night, temporary accommodation was provided to 200 people. According to the confirmed data of the doctors, 43 people were injured, including 12 children. The grief united everyone in the city: volunteer organizations work, international humanitarian missions help, hot lunches are organized.

No to war!

July 5, 2023

Dear all,

I used to be glad when I had nothing to report about. As they say, “no news – good news”.

Today, I should like to pay your attention to the following. First, a sad issue. Kharkiv University has been informed about one more victim in the ranks of its pupils. On May 12, 2023, a former student of the School of International Economic Relations and Travel Business Mykhailo Kornilov was killed. He was a rifleman of a platoon of an infantry company, and Junior Sergeant. It happened during a combat mission to protect the territorial integrity of the Motherland, repel and deter the armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine in the area of hostilities near the village of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bakhmut district, Donetsk region.

Second, I am truly concerned with news from the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. It is the largest NPP in Europe. Russian bandits act there in such a manner that both my graduates and Ukrainian military intelligence service warn about possible artificial explosions. It is absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of good sense. However, all this war is out of good sense, russian crimes against civilians are unacceptable, the explosion of Kakhovka hydro power plant… 496 days of extensive war in the twenty first century are out of good sense. The world has to elaborate new ways on how to behave with this problem since old methods do not help.

No to war!

June 30, 2023

Dear all,

I do not contribute to the diary every day. This does not mean that nothing happens in Ukraine. Every day I read the news from my Motherland, sad news about shelling, victims. TV channels reported this week about prigozhin marching to moskow. Russian shelling on the restaurant in Kramatorsk city on June 27 was one more of their crimes. 12 civilians were killed, three children were among them, and 65 people were injured of various degrees of severity as a result of a missile that the russian bandits fired from the Iskander-M complex at the crowded pizzeria "Ria Pizza" in the center of Kramatorsk.

However, my diary is not a review of military affairs in Ukraine – I write about my own experience.

Series of lectures on “Stellarator concept – Kharkiv lectures” started on-line on June 28. The course was initiated by the head of the Department of Applied Physics and Plasma Physics of Kharkiv University, director of Institute of Plasma Physics in Kharkiv, academician Igor Garkusha. The course consists of 11 lectures. Each lecture will be delivered by the world's leading experts in the field of Plasma Physics and Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion. The very first lecturer was Professor Peter Manz from Greifswald University with an introduction to Plasma Physics.

The 48 listeners included 17 students from Ukraine, as well as students and young scientists from Great Britain, the Netherlands, India, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, the USA, and France. It was an honor for me to be the event chair. Based on the material prepared for the course, a textbook will be published: corresponding agreement with the Elsevier publishing house was signed.

No to war!

June 18, 2023
Dear all,

My colleague Lina Tymarska shared the report about how schoolchildren of lyceum No. 2 in Gergachi city in Kharkiv region celebrated the finish of the academic year in front of the city cultural center destroyed by russian bandits.

“That's how the boys and girls of Dergachi are holding their once-in-a-lifetime, unique fest devoted to graduating from lyceum. Today, it happens against the background of apocalyptic pictures, similar to the frames of the video game "Stalker". Without loud music, without meeting the dawn, because Dergachi is unlucky with its neighbor... (Girka: Dergachi is situated to the north of Kharkiv region at the border with russian federation.) Stronger than ever, boys and girls, without too much pathos, but with an honorable blue-yellow graduation ribbon on their chest, dance the traditional waltz on both sides of the destroyed cultural center, as if sending a message to humanity - WE LIVE HERE AND WE WILL NOT BE BROKEN!

Happy young faces actually hide the experience of those 15 hellish months: how tense, devastation and stress it was to get this dream diploma into adult life, how bitterly our children gained knowledge and life experience in school shelters, basements, undergrounds, lack of sleep due to night rocket attacks shelling, sirens, blackouts - these are our young heroes.

I look at them, their hopeful eyes and sincere views into the future! How I wish that all these scary pictures of racist arbitrariness, and our desperate daily existence, were only virtual, artificial, some kind of fictional video game, from which you could exit without a save function. But the new reality forces all Ukrainians everywhere to hold firm!

What do our children feel at this moment of saying goodbye to school, on the threshold of choice, studentship, do they all have that bright spark of faith - that everything is ahead of them, that everything will be fine... Our little Ukrainians, schoolchildren, graduates - like all our people: indomitable, strong, united, devoted to their native land. They are our future, they are our hope and love. They are Ukraine!

Today I bow low to the teachers, because this is also your holiday, your endurance and strength to give knowledge and faith in yourself despite the war.”

No to war!

June 17, 2023

Dear all,

I wrote about what Russian bandits have made with the Kakhovka hydro power station. This link above is about official position of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and its Appeal to the international community to the international community on this question.

This is also to say once again the words of gratitude to the community of Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal, as well as fellows of DAAD from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" for valuable and durable support to Kharkiv hospital. This time, as usually, the hospital received exactly what it asked for, what it needs most today.

Many thanks! No to war!

June 10, 2023
Dear all!

Artur Omarov, a graduate of my "Faculty of Physics and Technology", died on June 7. Artur was seriously wounded while defending Ukraine in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

We all hoped for a miracle, but, unfortunately, a miracle did not happen. Artur died of his injuries in the Kharkiv military hospital. The community of Kharkiv University expresses its deepest condolences to the family (the wife and the daughter), relatives and friends of the deceased.

Artur graduated from our Faculty in 2000. I taught Arthur when he was a first-year student. I remembered him as very positive. He was always smiling. During the lectures, I regularly address the audience with questions on the topic of the lectures. Arthur deduced such a regularity in the answers to my questions. Most often, the answer to my questions is: "Zero". If not "zero", then "one". And if it is not "zero" and not "one", then one should think.

No to war!

June 6, 2023

Dear all!

Today morning, I am indignant about a new crime committed by russian bandits. They blew up the Kakhovka hydro power plant, which supplies Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (the largest in Europe) with water. You know, NPP cannot be stopped immediately. This can cause problems not for Ukraine itself.

And in this case I do not mention that

- the hydro power plant is valuable itself,

- people should be evacuated from many territories which can appear under water,

- the zone on both sides of the Dnieper river becomes unfit for life. After all, the water supply system of such large cities as Nikopol, Pokrov, Energodar, etc. was tied precisely to the water level in the reservoir of the plant. Several hundred thousand people will simply find themselves without drinking and technical water,

- finally, the Crimean Canal ceases to operate (and now many other canals that provided agriculture in the South of Ukraine).

The bandits should be stopped!

June 5, 2023

Dear all!

Ukraine is well-known to have powerful agriculture. There are some farmers among my friends. Two days ago, one of them, Serhii Lobas reported the finish of sowing (see pictures). He is the director if the farm Kyseli (Fruit Jellies) in Kharkiv region. His report contains some criticism as well, which I consider as a good sign. Our farmers are not slaves – they are patriots which is not a synonym to blind faith in the emperor (father of the nation).

“I believe that we shall resist! I believe that we shall overcome! We will win! We have finished the sowing. In my entire life, I don't remember spring field work being so difficult... Usually, sowing was finished by May 10-12. This year we finished on June 1. This is due to a number of objective factors.

First of all, the war and the weather did not allow to finish the autumn complex of field works normally last year. As a result, unprepared soil for corn and winter crops. Last year, for the same reasons, the area of winter crops was not planted, the area of winter crops was reduced by 400 hectares. It is clear that all this added work to the spring-field complex.

Second, late funding. We are grateful to Kredobank and the Lykhachovsky grain elevator: if it weren't for them, I don't know how we would have sown. The National Bank's position on lending to agricultural enterprises is surprising. I have already written about this in detail.

Thirdly, sowing was carried out under the conditions of a progressive imbalance of prices for agricultural products and the main components of the cost price. Agricultural products are becoming cheaper, while spare parts, plant protection products, etc. are becoming more expensive.

But in spite of all the problems, we sowed in full and almost within the technological terms. Formation and care of spring and winter crops are ahead. My deep thanks to my team for the coordinated work. We believe in Victory and are sure that farmers will provide Ukraine with food security! Glory to Ukraine!”

No to war!

June 4, 2023
Dear all,

A monument to children who were killed by russian bandits was opened in Kharkiv on June 4. The ceremony was attended by the wife of the President of Ukraine Olena Zelenska and the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration Oleg Synegubov. The monument was installed next to the building of the Kharkiv Regional Palace of Children's and Youth Creativity. "It is difficult to open monuments to the dead. Especially if these dead are children. After all, children have to live. As the small residents of the houses destroyed by russian missiles all over the country had to live. All passengers of cars with the inscription "Children" shot by the occupiers should have lived," said Olena Zelenska. The head of the Kharkiv regional military administration reported that during the 15 months of the criminal war, the russians killed 76 children in the Kharkiv region. The youngest victim of Putin's crimes was only 5 months old. More than 200 children were injured.

It is written on the monument: “To the little angels who met human cruelty so early and, unfortunately, will never grow up...”

No to war!

June 3, 2023

Dear all!

The exhibition “The War Is Not Over Yet” was opened in the open air near the building of Kharkiv University on May 30 (https://karazin.ua/news/vidkryttia-vystavky-the-war-is-not-over-yet/). It tells about Russian crimes against the media in Ukraine. It tells the stories “of Ukrainian and foreign journalists, cameramen, photographers, and recorders who have been killed, injured, or abducted since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. At the same time, the exhibition is an expression of gratitude to those journalists who continue to tell the truth about Russia's war against Ukraine, as well as a tribute to the memory of the victims.”

About thirty per cent of students at the Faculty of Physics and Technology were those from the Donbass region before 2014. One of my colleagues was born in Donbass as well. He was a lecturer at our Faculty. For almost a year, he is an officer of the Ukrainian Army. His childhood passed in the city of Artemivsk which was called long ago and is now called Bakhmut. My colleague wrote the following this week. “There were 17 secondary schools in Bakhmut where about 11,600 schoolchildren studied. There were 29 kindergartens in Bakhmut which were visited by about 3,500 children. In Bakhmut, there were 3 vocational schools (2,000 students), 2 technical schools (6,000 students), several music schools, 5 centers of culture, 12 libraries... There was a salt mine and the world's largest underground concert hall near Bakhmut. A large enterprise for producing sparkling wines using the classical bottling method was located in Bakhmut. And so on and so forth… Such a city no longer exists. Where 'Ruskyi mir' comes, everything ceases to exist.”

Wearing a white coat in war is not practical. Being a pacifist when russian bandits want to kill you and your family is pointless and deadly dangerous. Pacifism evaporates when you see not only the crimes of the Russians, but also the reaction of Russian citizens to them. It is a pity, but mothers and wives of military personnel in the russian federation did not become a revolutionary force capable of overthrowing Putin's regime. They beg him not to stop the war, but to give more shells and weapons to their sons and men.

Children's Day is an international holiday celebrated annually on June 1. The results of the children's comic contest 'Heroes of Russian Victories' were summarized on this occasion in the russian federation on June 2 (https://riamo.ru/article/645522/itogi-proekta-geroi-russkih-pobed-podveli-v-moskve, https://vz.ru/news/2023/5/1/1210008.html). The contest was held with the support of the Presidential Grants Fund. Ten comics drawn by children were published in a special magazine. In one of the comics, drawn by a 17-year-old teenager, the “russian heroes” scream and kill Ukrainian soldiers. In another, the child drew a scene about the hanging...

Despite the fact that russian bandits commit terrible crimes against my country and my people, despite the fact that the russian government consistently educates its population, including small children, to hate Ukraine and the entire world, I must remain human and avoid turning into a serial killer.

No to war!

May 27, 2023
Dear all!

One week more of the war has passed. I start every day with reading news from my colleagues and/or from Kharkiv regional military administration. They do not write about what happens what happens at the front in combat clashes. They write about life of civilians in Kharkiv region. And my diary is not about military events as well. Today morning, I read the following.

"The enemy continues to shell the civilian population of Kharkiv region. Unfortunately, civilians are dying. On May 26, as a result of the shelling of the village Shipuvate, a 61-year-old woman was killed. In addition, a 60-year-old man suffered shrapnel injuries and was hospitalized. Currently, doctors are providing assistance to him."

One can say, “only” two victims. To reply I must remind Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls”.

In particular, city of Dnipro was shelled on May 25. «This is a pure atrocity: a Russian missile, ballistics were used against a hospital and a veterinary clinic. Russian bandits are absolutely sick creatures. As of May 26, it was known that two people died as a result of the strike. Debris clearance has not yet been completed. More than 30 people were injured, including two children.»

The following news is to demonstrate that my colleagues do not sit back, do not grieve without doing anything. Both education and scientific research go on at the University. On May 20, Kharkiv University celebrated the Day of Science (see the pictures by Victoria Yakymenko attached). The event was attended by children, their parents and Kharkiv residents in general to explore the world of science together.

No to war!

May 20, 2023

Dear all! I start my every day with reading news from Ukraine and especially from Kharkiv. Every day, they report about the victims among civilians from the war. These victims are both from russian missiles and from mines which were left by the invaders everywhere on the liberated territory. Many fields cannot be used by the farmers because the lands require demining.

At 04:57 on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 the Kyiv Mayor Volodymyr Klychko warned the people of Kyiv about the work of the anti-aircraft defense forces. To the south of the city of Boryspil in the Kyiv region, air defense forces shot down enemy unmanned aerial vehicles. An air alert was announced in Kyiv and the Kyiv region for the second time overnight. The first time, the air alarm signal went off at 02:24. In fact, an air alert was announced throughout all the Ukraine that night.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhnyi, announced the following on May 16. "From six MiG-31K aircraft of the russian federation, six Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles were fired. 9 Kalibr cruise missiles were fired from russian military ships in the Black Sea, and three surface-based missiles (S-400, Iskander-M) were fired. All 18 missiles were destroyed by the forces and means of air defense of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

Nevertheless, debris from downed rockets fell in several places in the city of Kyiv: a non-residential building was on fire, several cars were on fire, and the zoo was also hit.

I talked by phone with my classmate who lives in Kyiv on Tuesday. He estimated that the previous night was the most dangerous after February 24, 2022. He works at the enterprise which deals with making chemical analysis. Every employee was tired and passive because of the sleepless night. The director ordered the staff to go home, since making analyses in such a state can waste reagents in vain only rather than provide reliable data. During the previous our talks, my friend called me to go home to Ukraine. This time he agreed that it is too early to consider the situation as appropriate and safe for staying in Ukraine.

Along with this, Ukrainians trust in God and Ukrainian Army. My colleagues do their best to make merry the life of Kharkiv children. For example, on May 13, 2023, the educational event "Magic of books - Magic of science!" was held at Kharkiv University for schoolchildren of the city of Kharkiv aged 9 to 15 (see the pictures). It should be noted that many children came with their parents, who enjoyed the event no less. It was a wonderful magical event, prepared and carried out by the creative team that included, in particular, the employees of the Library and several Faculties. Schoolchildren visited the library, which is not inferior to the storage of Hogwarts, saw what a real mandrake looked like, found out if there is a philosopher's stone, saw what old atlases of the world depicted and what newspapers wrote about 100 years ago. It is in place to remind that the library of Kharkiv University was established in 1805. Vasyl Karazin, the local nobleman who is considered as the person who established the University (with no saying about the fact that the University was Emperor’s one), travelled around the European University cities and purchased the books for Kharkiv University at the beginning of 19th century. Among the others, one can find the lifetime editions of books by Isaak Newton and Galileo Galilei in the library (see the pictures).

University professors gave interesting stories to schoolchildren, children watched a series of physical experiments, evaluated the work of a 3D printer, and heard the predictions of the wise hat. The teachers involved the children in measuring the level of the radiation background, demonstrated the properties of the electric field and discharge in gases, and the magnetic properties of the electric current. All visitors received positive emotions, learned something new and interesting about Kharkiv University, had a good time and went home with memorable souvenirs.

No to war!

May 13, 2023

Dear all,

Both pleasant and sad news came during the last week.

Despite all the obstacles and a full-scale invasion, Ukrainian sportsmen take part in some sport contests, once again demonstrating their skills, indomitable spirit, and the will to victory. The second stage of the World Cup in artistic swimming took place in Montpellier, France. Marta Fedina, a student of the Faculty of Sociology, became a silver medalist in the solo technical program. She was given 263.3083 points for her performance accompanied with the song "Magic Violin". In addition, the athlete won gold in the artistic program as part of the Ukrainian national artistic swimming team.

The 15th All-Ukrainian scientific conference of students and post-graduate students "Chemical Karazin Readings-2023" was held at the Chemistry Faculty of Kharkiv University. During the conference, 4 sections worked: organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry and physical chemistry. In total, 118 young scientists participated in the conference.

The Ukrainian archery championship among children's and youth sports schools, schools of higher sports skills, and schools of the Olympic reserve was held in the city of Chernivtsi. The representatives of Kharkiv University were among the participants of these competitions.

Sports successes of Ukrainians are one of the proofs of the indomitability and invincibility of our people, courage and perseverance to achieve the desired goal. The graduate of the Faculty of Economics of Kharkiv University Denys Veletsky became the champion of Ukraine for the 2022-2023 season as part of the "Prometheus" volleyball club (Dnipro) and received the title of "Master of Sports of Ukraine".

On May 5-9, the 18th Summer All-Ukrainian Fencing Universiade was held on the tracks of the educational and sports complex of the Lviv State University of Physical Culture named after I. Bobersky. Ksenia Makarushchenko, a second-year student of the Faculty of Economics, became the silver medalist in the epee tournament of the Universiade.

Yuliya Volkova, a graduate student of the Faculty of Physics and Technology, won the All-Ukrainian Young Scientist of the Year competition in the nomination "Graduate Student of the Year in the Field of Physical, Technical and Mathematical Sciences". And the senior lecturer of the Faculty of Computer Physics and Energy Oleg Ermakov became the winner in the "Physics and Astronomy" nomination.

The world’s largest decameter radio telescope UTR-2 is located in the Kharkiv region. One can read the report of Universe magazine about the destruction of the telescope made by russian bandits during the temporal occupation.

On Tuesday, May 9th, russia celebrated Victory Day. On this occasion, russian bandits fired at Kharkiv in the night. My friend, who stays in Kharkiv, wrote on social networks: “One, two, three, four, five, six.” There were six russian missiles which exploded that night in Kharkiv. Later on, the Kharkiv regional military administration confirmed the information.

No to war!

May 7, 2023

Dear all!

Today, I am going to draw your attention to several issues.

First, a group of journalists visited the building of the Faculty of Physics and Technology, Kharkiv University on May 4. They were there at the initiative of one of our graduates Oleksiy Dmytrenko. He voluntarily joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces a year ago. A journalist from the USA met him and wondered about his English. The pictures and the video from destroyed building are here and here. Both sources are in Ukrainian, however one can see the destruction without any translation.

Second, Ukraine is the largest in territory country of Europe (with no saying about russian federation). However, it is sufficiently small in the following respect. My colleague from the Institute of Plasma Physics, Kharkiv, Oleksandr Chmyga was born in Uman’, where Russian bandits targeted a house on April 28. It turned out that his niece Inna lived in this house destroyed by the Russian missile. Thanks to Fate, Inna miraculously survived.

Third, life in Ukraine is unsafe regardless of the region a person lives in. Not only Kharkiv and Donbass are dangerous to live in. On May 3, 2023, mourning was announced in the Kherson region for the victims of russian shelling. Mourning was held on May 4, 5 and 6. It should be noted that 23 people were killed, and 46 residents, including two children, were wounded in one day.

Fourth, as I have already mentioned and is well-known, Ukraine has four Nuclear Power Plants. The most powerful NPP in Europe is occupied by russian bandits. The situation in the Zaporizhzhya NPP area is becoming increasingly unpredictable. IAEA experts, who are present at the plant, regularly hear sounds of shelling. In his statement, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Raphael Mariano Grossi, has written: "The general situation in the Zaporizhzhya NPPt area is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous. I am extremely concerned about the very real risks to the nuclear and physical safety of the plant. We must act immediately to prevent the threat of a serious nuclear accident and the associated consequences for the population and the environment. This large nuclear facility must be protected. I will continue to insist that all parties commit to this vital goal, and the IAEA will continue to do everything it can to help ensure nuclear safety and security at the station."

No to war!

April 30, 2023

Dear all,
It is very difficult to write about victims. I am very glad when I have a chance to write here about renovations in Kharkiv or Ukraine in general. However, this time I cannot keep silent in regard to the new crime of russian bandits.
On the night of April 28, the russian army launched a rocket attack on a nine-storeyed building in the city of Uman, Cherkassy Region. As a result of the enemy's cynical attack, the entire entrance to the house was destroyed. As a result of the russian missile attack, 23 people were killed, including four children. The head of the Cherkasy regional military administration, Igor Taburets, said that the children who died in Uman were born in 2009, 2012 and 2021, the date of birth of the fourth child is being determined.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65421341
Russian mass media joyfully reported about this event as successful russian shelling against a Ukrainian Army detachment. The next day, they used the pictures from Uman to lie that these are the results of Ukrainian shelling of Donbass city.

No to war! No apology to war criminals!

April 28, 2023

Dear all!

I studied and work at the School of Physics and Technology, Kharkiv University. It was established by Kyrylo Synelnykov and Anton Valter. These two were in the team which carried out the first experiment in the Soviet Union on artificial splitting the atom. Inside the University our School is mostly known as the School of Nuclear Physics. Last week brought at least two news stories about the nuclear sphere.

First, 37 years ago, the Chornobyl NPP accident took place. It has left a huge scar on the whole world. The radiation leak turned a once cozy and developed area into an exclusion zone. Today, the 30-kilometer zone around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant remains a dangerous place with a high concentration of radiation.

Last year, the russian bandits not only seized the nuclear power plant, but also endangered the entire world again. It’s been more than a year after the liberation already, scientific and security enterprises in the Chornobyl zone have already returned to normal operation.

Ukraine and the world have paid a high price for the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster, which continues to this day. We must do everything to give no chance to the terrorist state to use nuclear power facilities to blackmail Ukraine and the entire world.

2. Nuclear terrorists from russia continue the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia NPP. As reported by the IAEA press service, IAEA Director General Raphael Grossi said that a mine exploded near the Zaporizhzhia NPP this week.

Verbatim: "IAEA experts, who are present at the nuclear power plant, were again forced to take cover this week after a warning of a missile attack, as well as the sounds of gunfire echoing in the distance as hostilities continue in the region. In addition, one mine exploded near the plant."

It looks like the russian bandits do their best to commit all the crimes which exist.

No to war!

April 22, 2023

Dear all,

This time, there are two sad reasons for my diary issue. The war is under way, and military experts outside Ukraine expect its end either next year or even later. I am not a military expert; however, I understand that the longer the war, the less Ukrainians in the age between 18 and 60 remain alive. That is why I hope that leaders of democratic countries all over the world will do their best to finish the war as soon as possible, but earlier than next year.

This week, Kharkiv University received yet other sad news about two fallen soldiers. Every fallen soldier is a painful scar for all of us.
On April 3, 2023, Roman Yanyshev, a graduate of the Faculty of Sociology, died in the Donetsk area. Active, inspired by life, the boy entered Karazin University in 2012. He studied at the Department of Political Science, took part in many plays and concerts, represented the faculty in competitions, and won prizes. Roman was a member of the University Student Council and implemented many different projects as part of it. Everyone who knew Roman remembers him as a very talented, creative and selfless guy who left his mark in the hearts of many people.

In the battle for Donbas, near the city of Kreminna, 29-year-old Mykhailo Alekseenko died. He graduated from the Faculty of Sociology in 2017. He was an activist of social movements: "Let Build Ukraine Together", Kharkiv Foundation of Regional Initiatives, and student self-government. A native of the city of Sloviansk defended the Motherland as part of the Lviv 125th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Mykhailo has been an active and caring person since his student years. As the head of the Student Council of the campus, he took care of the well-being of the dormitories. Everyone who knew Mykhailo remembers him as an honest, decent, dignified person. He was a true patriot of Ukraine. He lived according to the slogan "Build Ukraine yourself!"

These news leave pain and holy hatred for the enemies in the hearts... Our brave soldiers grew up to be true patriots, loved Ukraine above all else and gave their lives to young people for our peaceful mornings. Kharkiv University expresses its deepest condolences to the family, relatives and friends of the victims. They are our HEROES, and we will be worthy of their bright memory. The victory will certainly be ours! Eternal and bright memory to the Heroes of Ukraine!

No to war!

April 10, 2023
Dear all!

Several years ago, a new organ (a huge musical instrument) was installed in Kharkiv. It has been silent since February 24, 2022. Achievements of Ukrainian militaries in liberation of our motherland made it possible for Kharkiv citizens to visit the concert on April 08, 2023. I hope this is the demonstration of Ukrainian unbreakable spirit – both of militaries and civilians. My friend Olga Vovk wrote: “The first organ concert since the full-scale invasion at the Kharkiv Philharmonic was sold out yesterday (April 8, 2023). Indomitable Kharkiv is reborn and continues to surprise the world!”

No to war!

April 8, 2023
Dear all,
My diary includes either my own observations or those from my friends. I am happy that reports about victims among my students or colleagues, who are now in the Ukrainian Army, do not arrive every day.
The spring has come, and the Kharkiv regional military administration calls the citizens to be careful because of urgent mine danger. Nevertheless, almost every day brings reports about civilians who suffered from russian mines. “Two more civilians were injured today (April 07) in the Kharkiv region as a result of detonation of explosive devices. “
I write about spring since Ukrainians, in particular, use to visit cemeteries to take care of the graves.
“In the city of Izyum, a 53-year-old woman stepped on an anti-personnel mine of the "Petal" type on the territory of the central cemetery. She was hospitalized with a mine-explosive injury.”
Russian bandits continue to shell the border towns and villages of the Kharkiv region. Unfortunately, there are victims among the civilian population.
“Today (April 07), around 2:30 p.m., the russian invaders shelled the village Borysivka. As a result of this shelling, a 39-year-old civilian man died.”
Time after time, russian missiles hit houses in Kharkiv city. This week, my friend Olga Yuferova (see the picture) wrote: “In my childhood I lived here, on the third floor, with my grandparents... My girlfriend lived in the apartment opposite...”
No to war!

March 31, 2023
Dear all,

the war is under way. Every day, I read in social nets about victims among my colleagues. Civilians suffer from mines, which left after de-occupation. Militaries do their best to liberate Ukraine and pay by their lives.

Ukrainians continue their efforts in all the spheres, including science, education and culture. My colleague Professor Serhiy Lytovchenko, whose daughter is a bright violist, writes.

“On March 26, 2023, a significant event took place in Kharkiv. It can be called as a mile stone. On the eve of World Theater Day (since 1961, it has been celebrated annually on March 27), a concert by artists of the Kharkiv National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet named after M.V. Lysenko took place in the great hall of the theater. This happened for the first time since February 24 last year. There were no such events in Kharkiv for more than a year. There were concerts at various venues, but there was never an opportunity to gather so many spectators. And finally - it happened!

As you know, most of the theater artists are now in Europe. However, those who stayed and worked all year in Kharkiv are real heroes. They gave concerts in all metro stations, when the city was under fire and people were hiding in the stations. They performed in places where IDPs are, in medical facilities and homes for the elderly, in schools and churches, in front of volunteers and children, at prominent events at our native University.
And now - a big stage, a big hall, a big audience - the event gathered more than 800 spectators in the hall! The concert began with the National Anthem of Ukraine, and ended with the performance of "Prayer for Ukraine" by Mykola Lysenko. The main part of the numbers consisted of opera arias from famous works of European and Ukrainian composers.
Almost all the artists currently in Kharkiv took part in the concert. The orchestra of 16 performers was led by the conductor Yuriy YAKOVENKO. The choir was represented by 11 singers. The audience was impressed by the brilliant performance of the solo parts by the opera soloists. The management of the theater, represented by acting the director Ihor TULUZOV (graduate of the university) assured that under safe conditions the concert performances in the large hall will be continued.”

March 19, 2023

Dear all!

The war is under way. However, Kharkiv University lives and functions. I do my lectures and teach the students to solve problems in General Physics. The University site reports on the achievements of our students.

“In particular, on March 2, 3 and 6, 2023, graduates of the PhD course of Kharkiv University: Olena Moskayeva, Dmytro Dudarev and Dar᾽ya Stepaniuk successfully defended their dissertations in international one-time special scientific councils and became doctors of philosophy. This became possible due to the long-term collaboration within the framework of the agreement on scientific and academic cooperation between the Faculty of Chemistry of Kharkiv University and the LASIRE laboratory of the University of Lille (France)…”

“This year, for the first time in history, the World Cup in artistic swimming among single women in the technical program started in the city of Markham (Canada). Marta Fedina, a student of the Faculty of Sociology of the Kharkiv University, won the gold medal in the technical solo and won the first award of the World Cup for the Ukrainian national team. The best synchronized dancer of 2022 in Europe performed with the program "Magic Violin" and scored 245.2917 points…”

But the war reminds me of it every day. Among the news about the University achievements, one reads about our victims. “Ihor Filimonov, a graduate of the medical faculty of the University, a combat medic who managed to save hundreds of lives, died during a combat mission. The University community expresses its condolences to relatives and friends and shares the pain of loss. It is very painful to lose such young, energetic, gifted people, true patriots who gave their lives for the bright future of Ukraine, for its freedom and independence. Eternal memory, eternal glory to the Hero!”

No to war! On one hand, I pray this war will not be the war till the last Ukrainian. On the other hand, it would be so if Ukrainians give up.

March 16, 2023

Dear all!

On March 15, 2023, web-site of Kharkiv University displaced the sad news.
“It is with deep sadness that we inform you that Oleksiy Kuznetsov, a graduate of the Faculty of Philology, died fighting for Ukraine.
Despite his respectable age and health, Oleksiy volunteered to join the ranks of the National Guard of Ukraine from the first day of the full-scale invasion. He defended the northern borders of Kharkiv region, and later fought for the freedom of our country in Donetsk region.

Oleksiy was a very handsome, bright man, a brave warrior and a true patriot. He will forever remain in the memory of those who knew him.

We express our sincere condolences to Oleksiy's family and friends.

Eternal memory, eternal glory to the Hero!”

No to war!

March 12, 2023

Dear all!

During the year of the active phase of russia's war against Ukraine, humanity has already seen everything from Russian bandits: the destruction of schools and universities, hospitals and churches, the occupation of a nuclear power plant, mass murders of the civilian population. However, I cannot get used to these crimes. Last week, a video that was filmed by the bandits went viral on the social network. On it, they show off how they shot an unarmed Ukrainian serviceman. Before the murder, the bandits demanded that the Ukrainian tear off the chevrons from his clothes, which indicated his membership in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In response, the Ukrainian shouted the slogan: "Glory to Ukraine!" The video shows how after that the man was shot with several machine guns.

Investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine confirmed that it turned out to be Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, a sniper from the 163rd battalion of the 119th separate brigade of the Chernihiv Oblast Troops. The defender of Ukraine was shot on December 30, 2022. His body was brought home in February 2023. Today, the President of Ukraine awarded Oleksandr the title of Hero of Ukraine.

Among the comments made by Ukrainians about this crime, the following one is the closest to me personally.

«I thought this only happened in the movies... I thought a person couldn't face death so calmly and with dignity... knowing that his last moment has come and making the decision to go with dignity... to go on his own terms... to go with words on his lips that he chose himself... take his last breath, take his time, say the slogan and die... I thought that only heroes die like that in the cinema... now I know what dignity exists... the real dignity of a real Ukrainian hero...” - this is how famous banker Serhiy Fursa commented on this terrible event.

No to war!

March 8, 2023
Dear all,

The war is under way. Every day my friends all over Ukraine write about victims among their relatives: both militaries and civilians. Ukraine resists evil. Many thanks to the democratic world for the support!

Ukrainians resist both in front and in the rear (by repairing, maintaining and developing infrastructure). Yesterday, my friend Nataliia Popova reported about the lightning being repaired in Kharkiv streets.

“It happened! I've been waiting for this for more than a year. In the picture, one can see me and the light in Kharkiv! The Victory is the only which I am waiting for now when the lighting returns to Kharkiv! We are seen again from outer space.”

No to war!

February 26, 2023
Dear all!

I plan to take part in the 7th ENEN (European nuclear education network) aisbl General Assembly. I have received the following video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghOYRiMTe3I&t=118s) from the University with comparison of our life before and after February 24, 2022.

No to war!

FEBRUARY 24, 2023
Dear all,

A year ago the full-scale invasion of russian federation into my Ukraine started. My land did nothing to provoke the war… except for being too patient with the neighbor.

Almost every pair of neighbors has dark pages in their history of relations. I knew about these pages in the Russian-Ukrainian history from my grand-mothers. However, I tried not to emphasize, not to touch, to forget about just these dramatic episodes. When a boy, I studied at school with children of different origins (Russians, Ukrainians, Jews…). We were mostly friendly since we lived in the same settlement near the school and knew each other well.

At the University, we were even more close to each other with my peers as compared with the school. At the University, we were young men from different cities and republics of the Soviet Union. But we have chosen Physics, and Physics united us. I spoke Russian, all the lectures were in Russian, all the textbooks were in Russian. All the nationalities were proclaimed as equal in the Soviet Union, however Russians were “elder brothers”.

Two of my cousins have chosen the profession of militaries, and live now in Russia. They do not communicate with me after February 24, 2022. I cannot read neither books, nor papers, nor magazines in Russian after February 24, 2022. I cannot sing songs in Russian (known from my childhood) after February 24, 2022. I have access but my soul does not accept anything Russian. Why? Because I saw the battles of russian tanks against my Motherland with my own eyes. Because russians destroyed the building of my Faculty. Because they killed thousands of civilian Ukrainians, including my colleagues and graduates. Because I have to sleep in the German guesthouse rather than at home in Kharkiv…

Russia produced the highest barrier between the neighboring nations. What was the purpose? Today I can suggest only one explanation. Russian Federation has no results in developing science and education, medical service and other elements of life quality comparable to European countries. Its government can only lie and steal. They are very ineffective managers. They cannot explain the absence of achievements to their people in other manner than artificially introducing external enemies in person of Europe and USA mostly. They are successful in this area of propaganda.

They tried to occupy Donbass, Crimea and Kharkiv as the first step. They thought that a large number of the population of these regions with Russian background (who speaks Russian, whose parents came to Ukraine from the Russian Federation many years ago) would meet russian tanks with flowers. However, even these people prefer democracy rather than despotism, creative freedom rather than poverty of a prisoner. Many of my colleagues, who voluntarily went to the Ukrainian Army to struggle against invaders, do not speak Ukrainian but they do not want russian disorder to come to our land.

Ukraine has paid an enormous price for being patient to russian neighbor for dozens of years in the past. Russia committed too many crimes in Ukraine after 2014 and especially in 2022. First, this should be stopped. And we need external help to reach this goal. Second, after the Victory, russian outlaws should be punished. This is necessary for the entire world to prevent the next crimes.

No to war, Igor

February 23, 2023
Dear all,
russian papers do not report on any success in Ukraine despite all their comprehensive efforts to achieve some result on the occasion of one year of the war. On the other hand, the intensity of russian shelling became very high. This is seen from the enhanced number of victims from both sides observed during the last weeks.

On February 9, 2023, Oleksandr Lipilin, who graduated from the Faculty of Sociology in 2002, died while defending our land from the invaders near Bakhmut. The university community remembers Oleksandr as a wonderful person. Always a calm and restrained man, he carried his guard with dignity and believed that victory would be ours. According to the reviews of his military brothers, Oleksandr was always a reliable friend. It is incredibly painful that this war cut short his life, hopes and plans, left his two children fatherless.

On February 15, 2023, Oleg Fedorenko, who graduated from the Faculty of History in 2012, died in the line of duty. Oleg Fedorenko specialized in the department of historiography, source studies and archeology. After completing his studies at the Faculty of History, he worked as the chief specialist in the State Archives of the Kharkiv region. Since September 2022, he has been on the defense of our state. A senior soldier, later a senior rifleman of a rifle platoon, died as a result of an anti-tank missile fire near the village of Berkhivka, Donetsk region (Bakhmut direction).

On February 21, my colleagues from the Faculty of Physics reported the death of Vladyslav Sergeev in the war with the russian invaders. Vladyslav was a graduate of the Department of Astronomy of the Faculty of Physics. He entered the University in 1987, received an astronomer diploma in 1993. Between 1999 and 2003, he worked as an engineer at the Astronomy Institute of our University. During the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-2014, Vladyslav was on the Maidan as part of the Kharkiv Self-Defense Force. Then he went to defend Ukraine from russian invasion in 2014. After two years of military service, he came back to the University. With the beginning of a full-scale invasion in 2022, he defended Kharkiv first as part of the “Kraken” special unit, and then as part of the 227th Separate Battalion of the Territorial Defense Forces. Together with his battalion, he went to Bakhmut recently. Vladyslav was killed by an enemy mine while evacuating the wounded comrades.

The University community expresses its deepest condolences to the family, relatives and friends of the victims.

Eternal memory to the defenders of Ukraine!

No to war!

February 19, 2023
Dear all!

I start every day with reading the reports from the Kharkiv regional military administration listing the victims of russian bandits during the previous day. However, Ukraine lives. In extremely difficult times for the country, the University continues to implement the significant social and educational mission of the University. In particular, Kharkiv University continues to make Kharkiv schoolchildren acquainted with the variety of the University education programs. This Saturday, new project called as “Karazin weekends for schoolstudents” started. Free offline classes in popular science for schoolchildren are its essence. On Saturday, there were three cool lectures from three faculties: Physics, History, and Chemistry.

My colleague, Professor Pavlo Yeremieiev writes: “For the first time in this school year, I held a "live" meeting with schoolchildren. This happened in the framework of the Karazin weekends for schoolchildren project. We discussed the topic "History as a science, art and subject of the National Multidisciplinary Test" (National Multidisciplinary Test is the exam to enter University during the war time). Many thanks to the organizers for the honor of participating in a wonderful project and to the students for actively participating in the conversation!”

No to war!

February 12, 2023
Dear all!

The war goes on. Kharkiv regional military administration reports (and my colleagues in Kharkiv confirm that they have heard the explosions) about three hits by enemy S-300 missiles in the city on February 12. “One of the infrastructure facilities was damaged. Information about the victims and the scale of the destruction is being clarified.”

However, this my message is about the different side of our life. My colleague-lawyer Mykola Kucheryavenko writes today about his visit to a theatre!

“KHARKIV IS UNBREAKABLE. Finally, my family went to the theater yesterday. Last week, the actress' illness and my own high temperature coincided. The performance was postponed. The hall is small, the audience is in outerwear, but the tickets are available for April only. Kharkiv Academic Drama Theater. (Girka: formerly, it was named after russian writer Oleksander Pushkin. But it changed its name in 2022 at the request of the actors. Historians say that Pushkin never visited Kharkiv.)

"Love your neighbor" based on the works by Erich Maria Remarque. A play about a war within a war. To say that I liked it - probably not. A certain shock! A very emotional impression from the dramatic and tragic events on the stage... So familiar now in life. A play about the present. Six actors, several reincarnations - art or miracle? Everyone decides for himself. We talked with the director with gratitude - solid positivity and initiative, many plans. They mentioned the recent tour to Kyiv. The first one after getting rid of the stamp of pushkinism and russianness. By the way, it was a dissonance for the theater whose repertoire includes Ukrainian authors like Ivan Franko and Lesya Ukrainka and has been performing exclusively in Ukrainian language for two years. Kyiv applauded, applauded wildly and standing under slogans from the hall: " KHARKIV IS UNBREAKABLE!!!"

KHARKIV IS UNBREAKABLE!!! No to war!

February 9, 2023
Dear all,
This time I attach pictures and the text from my graduate Iryna Rakytska. Her private house was destroyed yesterday.
«My hatred of russian thugs is cyclical, but it never goes down to zero.
Sometimes it grows rapidly and lasts for a very long time: Bucha, Irpin, Kremenchuk, Izyum, Dnipro, Kharkiv, my daughter-in-law killed by a piece of debris...
And from today, my home is also added, so warm, familiar, cozy and which is no longer there... From today we are homeless.
Now there is no anger, now I am weak, crushed, broken, but this is temporary, all these emotions will be digested and transformed into one - hatred and contempt for everything russian.
From today I have no home!»
No to war!

February 5, 2023
Dear all!
Today, my native city Kharkiv once again suffered from russian missiles. The journalist Lina Tymarska from Kharkiv University writes the following from Kharkiv about the destruction.
“We, Kharkiv residents, have no vaccination from unexpected news. We understand very well that the occupiers are cynically trying to destroy us, break the defense of the heroic city of Kharkiv, destroy our buildings, architecture, mutilate the lives of the civilian population, mutilate culture and national consciousness during all these 347 days of full-scale invasion.
The invaders are once again hitting the city center to sow abhorrent Kremlin terror... This morning, February 5, as a result of a russian missile strike, the building of the Kharkiv National University of Urban Economy named after O.M. Beketov was destroyed (see pictures from the social net by Iryna Venediktova), a security guard of the University was wounded. Another missile hit the foundation of a residential building near the University...
The picture of missile strikes on buildings of V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University after February 24, 2022 automatically comes to life in my head, along with the feeling of anger and the desire for a just punishment.
"They came to kill us. This is a war with the goal to delete our nation, and Ukrainians must not lose it." - I recall the words of Serhii Zhadan (the writer and musician, Honorary Doctor of the Karazin University). He immediately recognized the anxiety, but did not despair - only complete misunderstanding: how is it possible. "How can they shoot rockets at residential areas and the civilian population? It is clear that there can be no agreements after this."
So, with regard to a fair punishment, we Kharkiv residents firmly believe that it is inevitable and we are working together on a legal punishment.
Criminal proceedings have been opened on the facts of this war crime committed by russia in Ukraine. Kharkiv prosecutors, as well as police investigators are working at the place of arrival.
Restoration work continues, specialists continue to dismantle rubble and eliminate the emergency of damaged areas.
We express our words of endorsement to the professors and students of Kharkiv National University of Urban Economy named after O.M. Beketov.
Today WE ALL ARE UKRAINE! We are cells of the same organism. So every loss, destruction hits straight to the heart, but faith in victory allows you to take a breath and fight, hold on despite everything!”
No to war!

January 29, 2023
Dear all!
As a member of the Kharkiv University community I should like to pay your attention to an important event in the University life. The following is the text from my colleague, a historian Maryna Grygorieva.
“On January 29, 1805, the solemn opening of Kharkiv University took place. It was the foundation of the University that contributed mostly to the active development and urbanization of the city, whose population at the beginning of the 19th century was only about 10,000 people. During the 218 years of its history, the University and the University community experienced many significant events, and gave a worthy response to a number of challenges of the time, which arose in different eras.
Today, University professors and students, like all conscious Ukrainians, are creating a new, heroic and victorious page in the history of our country. Many of our colleagues defend Ukraine at the front, make superhuman efforts every day to liberate us from the invaders and defeat the enemies of democracy and justice. University community is working in the rear on the educational and scientific front to preserve and increase the powerful educational and research assets of our country.
The University continues to occupy high positions in international rankings. However, it is also the leader in heavy losses caused by the actions of the aggressor. Most likely, it is Kharkiv University that ranks first in Ukraine in terms of the scale of destruction during the war. And the most terrible thing: the University does not stop mourning its employees and students who heroically gave their lives, defending us and our indomitable country.
The mission of the University changes with the change of eras. Today it consists in education despite the war. The formation of a new policy of memory, aimed at the further development of the national idea and commemoration of the brave Heroes of invincible Ukraine is an indispensable component of this mission. And the University successfully fulfills its mission, as always.
Happy holiday, alma mater, our Heroic University!
Eternal glory to the Heroes!”
No to war!

P.S. Picture of the pre-war University made by Dr. Volodymyr Rudychev

January 22, 2023
Dear all!

The war is under way. However, this day, I should like to pay your attention to the Day of the Unity of Ukraine.

On January 22, 1918, the independence of Ukraine was proclaimed by the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada. And a year later, in 1919, on this very day, the official unification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic took place on Sophia Square in Kyiv. Thus, for the first time in many centuries, almost all the historical Ukrainian regions were united into one state.

My friend, the deputy head of Kharkiv military administration Roman Semenukha writes: “For me, this is a celebration of the unity of the Ukrainian identity, particularly the spiritual one. And on this day, we should remember as much as possible about those of ours who are under occupation. It is the most difficult for them, and our thoughts should be about them.”

The student of Kharkiv University Illya Glushko made the picture at the central Kharkiv square – Svobody square (square of Freedom). He writes: “Our Ukraine is united because it is strong. She is strong because it is united.”

No to war!

Update on January 21, 2023: 
Dear all!

The war is under way. International community continues a discussion whether it is possible to provide that or other weapons to Ukraine. Every day brings new victims among Ukrainian civilians with no saying about militaries.

Meanwhile, life goes on. And Ukrainian schoolchildren continue, in particular, taking part in intellectual contests. One of them is a game in which schoolchildren play in inventors. One team presents its invention. The other team plays the role of patent examiner. Recently, XXIII All-Ukrainian Tournament of Young Inventors and Rationalizers took place. The team of Kharkiv gymnasium No. 47 has become the winner. My colleage, the teacher in Physics at this gymnasium writes:

«Many thanks to the organizers of the Tournament! It was extremely well organized. Our team took part in the tournament for the fifteenth time. There have never been any violations. We observed only integrity, high level of upbringing of children, and humanity. In these difficult times, we all remember that our children are the most valuable treasure. Bricks remained from the building of our gymnasium due to the Russian bombings (see the picture). But although russian bandits can break a brick, they cannot break us. We must save the nation. Thanks to the jury and all teams for communication. Low bow to Ukrainian soldiers who defend us, Ukraine and all the world.»

In the pictures, one can see the team members and their teacher in Physics: Roman Lyubota (11th form); Yehor Godovanets (11th form), Maksym Danshin (11th form), this guy has been participating in these tournaments since the 8th form; Fedir Shestirko (10th form); and Artem Serik (7th form).

No to war!

Update on January 17, 2023:
Dear all!

This time I write to express my cordial gratitude to all the donators to Kharkiv hospital. Your support made it possible to broaden the possibilities in supplying the hospital, in particular, by medicine. Urgently needed generators have also been ordered.

Many thanks, Igor Girka

Update on January 15, 2023: 
Dear all,

I do not contribute to the diary every day. Every day, I do my job at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany. I write a message to the diary if something happens with my colleagues in Ukraine or if I read something important in social networks. In both cases, the news is mostly sad. I have to read and the news has to pass through my mind. It is extremely difficult to write about human grief: I go back to the days of February 2022, when I was with my wife in Kharkiv and heard and saw the results of russian shelling directly. It hurts physically. However, I have to write about the next russian crime in Dnipro city in Ukraine.

All the social nets are full of pictures and videos from Dnipro, where russian missile destroyed the multistoried house (see here).

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on January 14, the Russian army launched three air strikes and about 50 missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine. In addition, there were 50 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems.

According to the latest information from the head of the Dnipro Regional Military Administration, Valentin Reznichenko, 20 residents of the house were killed. Dozens of people were injured, more than 40 are in the hospital. About 40 people were rescued from the rubble. More than 30 are listed as missing.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, an X-22 missile was fired at a house in Dnipro from a long-range bomber from airspace over the russian Kursk region. The missile is designed to combat aircraft carrier strike groups at sea.

I added three pictures from the message from my colleague (the pictures are made by Arsen Dzodzayev). Therein, one can see a girl sitting in her destroyed room in Dnipro and waiting for help. It looks like it is a rather high floor, probably, the fourth one. The girl was saved. In the picture, where the rescuers are lowering her down, the girl has a soft green toy under her arm.

I do not want the war to be that till the last Ukrainian. No to war!

Update on January 8, 2023:
Dear all!
This week, an employee of Kharkiv University library, Svitlana Glybytska, published an updated list of students, employees and graduates of the university who died in the russian war against Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, there are already 40 victims since the beginning of hostilities in 2014.

University residents who died in 2014-2017.
1. Sviatoslav Serhiyovych HORBENKO (December 26, 1994–October 3, 2014), student of the Faculty of History (part-time), soldier of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, junior lieutenant. Died during the defense of Donetsk airport.
2. Vladyslav Viktorovych KOVALYOV (10.01.1984–29.08.2014), graduate of the Faculty of Medicine, volunteer of the Kherson special police patrol service battalion. Died during the battles near Ilovaisk — carrying the wounded out of shelling.
3. Anastasia Andriivna KOZLOVA (12.01.1994—13.06.2014), student of the Faculty of Philosophy. She was evacuated to Kharkiv from her hometown of Mariupol, where military operations were taking place at the time. Died in Kharkiv during an accident.
4. Myroslav Ivanovich MYSLA (4.07.1992–2.10.2016), graduate of the Faculty of History (2013). He fought as a fighter of the separate volunteer company "Karpatska Sich", later - as an officer of the 93rd separate mechanized brigade. He died near the village of Krymske in the Luhansk region.
5. Eduard Anatoliyovych USHAKOV (13.12.1990–29.08.2014), student of the Faculty of History, Senior Rifleman of the 2nd Battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine "Donbas". He died while leaving the "green corridor" from the Ilovai boiler, when the car in which he was driving was fired upon and caught fire.
6. Petro Viktorovych FEDORYAKA (September 15, 1964–July 31, 2014), graduate of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics (1986), teacher of the highest category, famous Ukrainian blacksmith, senior lieutenant, commander of the anti-aircraft artillery platoon of the parachute battalion of the 25th Airborne Brigade. Died in Shakhtarsk during a tank attack by the Russian invaders.
7. Mykola SHLAPAK (27.03.1981–2.03.2017), graduate of the Journalism Department of the Faculty of Philology (2000), TV journalist, Honored Journalist of Ukraine (received the title for reports from Donbas during the war), administrator of the TV channel "OTB" (Kharkiv branch of "National public broadcasting company"), volunteer and military correspondent. Died during a business trip to Donbas.

University residents who died in 2022
1. Oleg Yuriyovych AMOSOV (September 2, 1954–March 1, 2022), doctor of economic sciences, professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine. At the University, he headed the Department of Economic Theory and Public Finance. Died of wounds as a result of shelling of residential quarters in Kharkiv.
2. Oleksandr Volodymyrovych BEZUGLY (8.02.1978–2.03.2022), associate professor of the Department of Regional Management and Local Self-Government. One of the organizers of territorial defense of the Kharkiv region. Died as a result of a rocket-bomb attack on one of the headquarters of the Kharkiv Territorial Defense.
3. Artem Yevgenovich BORODAVKA (18.09.1982–15.05.2022), graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (2004). Died during the battles for the liberation of Kharkiv Region. Was in the ranks of Territorial Defense.
4. Inna GEMMA (KULYK) (January 2, 1991–April 3, 2022), graduate of the Faculty of Biology. Died in Kharkiv during shelling. Her 3-year-old daughter ended up in intensive care. Two more small children remained with their father (a graduate of the Faculty of Biology).
5. Hennadiy GENKIN (? – until 25.04.2022), teacher (the faculty has not yet been determined). He died in the ranks of the Kharkiv Territorial Defense.
6. Yaroslav GRYDASOV (?–27.07.2022), an employee of the Department of Security and Protection of Karazin University. Died in the ranks of the Kharkiv Territorial Defense in Kharkiv Region.
7. Oleksiy HUSAROV (?–?.05.2022), graduate of the Faculty of Economics (1999). Joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2014. He was awarded the Order of Courage III degree (in April 2022) and the Order of Courage II degree (posthumously in May 2022).
8. Serhii ZAIKOVSKY (?–24.03.2022), graduate of the Faculty of History. He served in the ranks of the Armed Forces. Died near Kiev during a counteroffensive. Awarded the Order "For Courage" III degree (posthumously).
9. Volodymyr IVASCHENKO (7.12.2001–5.11.2022), 3rd-year student of the Faculty of Computer Sciences. Took part in the liberation of Kharkiv Region. Died in Donbas during the evacuation of the wounded.
10. Artem Oleksandrovych KIPARENKO (04/07/1998–05/15/2022), student of the Faculty of History (studied one course by correspondence). Participant of the war since 2014. From the first day of the full-scale war, he went to the front. Died in the battles for Kharkiv.
11. Artem KOMAR (?–28(?).02.2022), a graduate of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the Karazin University, a fighter of Territorial Defense. Died in the battles for Kharkiv.
12. Oleksandr KORSUN (?–04.7.2022), senior lecturer of the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry. Died during the shelling of Kharkiv.
13. Rustam KORSUNSKY (?–7.07.2022), a graduate of the Educational and Scientific Institute "Karazinsky Banking Institute". Died while performing his military duty near Kharkiv.
14. Boris Volodymyrovych KRASYLNYKOV (?–?.?.2022), graduate of the Faculty of Law (2013). Died while defending Kharkiv Region.
15. Yuriy KRASOVSKY (?–March 25, 2022), graduate of the Faculty of History (2017–2021, part-time). Died during the liberation from the occupiers of the village Vilkhivka in Kharkiv Region.
16. Roman Yuriyovych KRYMSALYUK (?–?.12.2022), graduate of the Department of Astronomy and Space Informatics, Faculty of Physics (2009). He worked as a physics teacher at Malynyvskyi Lyceum No. 1 (Malynyvka township, Chuguyivskyi district). Went to the front as a volunteer.
17. Mykhailo Valeriyovych LESYUTA (7.01.1997–11.12.2022), graduate of the Faculty of Physics and Technology (2019). Since September 2022, he served in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in military unit A1815 as a radiotelephone operator of the intelligence department. Died while performing a combat mission in the village of Neskuchne in Donetsk region.
18. Vlas LISNYI (January 24, 1989–September 5, 2022), graduate of the Department of Media Communications of the Faculty of Sociology (2015). A signalman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, died at the front as a result of a russian rocket hitting his group.
19. Ivan Oleksiyovych LUCHKO (10.09.2002–11.09.2022), 3rd-year student of the Faculty of History, mortarman at the main intelligence department of the Kraken special unit. Died during a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, in the direction of Balaklia.
20. Valery MUZYKA (?–?.03.2022), graduate of the Faculty of Foreign Languages (1986). He served in the ranks of the Armed Forces. Died in the battles in the Donetsk direction.
21. Kostyantyn Borisovych MYAGKOHLIB (July 28, 1974–March 4, 2022), associate professor of the Department of Physics of Non-Traditional Energy Technologies and Ecology of the Faculty of Computer Physics and Energy. Died during the shelling of Kharkiv.
22. Vadym Vasyliovych PAVLENKO (2002?–March 7, 2022), student of the Faculty of Ecology. Died from shelling during an attempt to evacuate from Izyum together with his father.
23. Evgeny PROSKURIN (April 21, 1996–April 21, 2022), graduate of the Faculty of Philology, volunteer. Died in Kharkiv during shelling.
24. Taras RITS (?–8.09.2022), graduate of the Faculty of Economics (2013). Died during the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the battles for the liberation of Balaklia.
25. Vitaly Yuriyovych SAVKO (11.11.1998–2.08.2022), graduate-bachelor of the Department of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Philosophy (2018). During a combat mission near the village of Pokrovskoe of the Donetsk region was seriously wounded and died on August 2, 2022 in a hospital in the city of Dnipro.
26. Mykyta Volodymyrovych SYTNYK (?–?.03.–04(?).2022), graduate of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, senior lieutenant, intelligence officer of the Airborne Forces (airborne assault troops). Died while performing his military duty in the ranks of the Armed Forces.
27. Oleg Yuriyovych STEPANOV (July 3, 1976–June 17, 2022), graduate of the Faculty of Geology and Geography (1999), head of the laboratory of lithophysical research, complex core research laboratory of research institute. Died while defending Kharkiv region.
28. Oleksandr TYURIN (?–27.07.–3.08(?).2022), graduate of the Faculty of Biology (2010). Died in battle.
29. Yevhen Viktorovych KHRAPKO (19.09.1984-11.06.2022), engineer of the simulation center of the medical faculty, paramedic, instructor, one of the founders of the 205th training center of tactical medicine, combat medic of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade. Died on the battlefield in the Kharkiv region.
30. Oleksandr CHABAN (17.08.1987–20.07.2022), graduate of the Faculty of Sociology (2013?). Died at the front defending Kharkiv.
31. Dmytro Viktorovych SHAPOVAL (November 22, 1991–July 19, 2022), graduate of the Faculty of History (2013), deputy commander of the reconnaissance company for moral and psychological support. Died in the Kherson region while performing a combat mission.
32. Yehor Shumayev (2002?–14.12.2022), 3rd-year student of the Faculty of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism. From the first days of the full-scale invasion, he served in the Territorial Defense, then joined the Armed Forces and defended Donbas, where he was seriously wounded. He died in a hospital in Kharkiv.
33. Oleg YANKOVSKY (June 1, 1976 - until March 6, 2022), 5th year correspondence student of the Faculty of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism. Was in the ranks of the Territorial Defense, died in the battles for Kharkiv.

Eternal glory to the heroes! We are waiting for the Victory for which they gave their lives. I really wish that the list would not be expanded any more...”

No to war!

Update on January 4, 2023:
Dear all!
I have reported about dozens of victims of the war associated with Kharkiv University. The day before yesterday, a mother of our graduate phoned the dean’s office and informed us about the death of her son.
On December 11, 2022, Mykhailo LESYUTA died in the Donetsk region. He protected Ukraine from russian aggression in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He graduated from the Master's program of the Faculty of Physics and Technology in 2019. He was a kind, sincere, modest, polite guy. This is how his fellow students and teachers remembered him. He comes from the Chernihiv region, from a modest family. He never grabbed the stars from the sky, but with perseverance and hard work he achieved the necessary results, he did not move forward quickly, but quite confidently.
He treated his family very warmly and with love. When his father fell ill, he even wanted to drop out of school to go home and help. While studying for a master's degree, he went to work in one of the enterprises near Kharkiv in his spare time. His ability to work, discipline, and responsibility were quickly noticed and appreciated there. At that time, he even changed externally, became more self-confident, began to contact people more easily, smiled more often...
His MSc thesis supervisor Professor Volodymyr Chyshkala writes the following.
"I am shocked by Mykhailo Lesyuta's death. I can't believe that I won't meet him again, we won't hug him. He was like an affectionate teddy bear. But at the same time, he was stout and strong. You could always rely on him. We worked together over his two diploma theses - a bachelor's and a master's. These were applied works related to our FED plant (one of the most advanced enterprises before February 24, 2022), because he liked experimental, technical work. And we would have continued this work if not for the war.
I will always remember his good smiling face."
No to war!

Update on December 31, 2022:

Dear all!

Despite the diary in general being about the war, I wish all of you a Happy New Year! I dream about our joint Victory over the evil!

I am very thankful to all of you who react to the call for support of Kharkiv hospital and donate to purchase three generators.

Master students in Ukraine have several possibilities in duration of studying: a year, a year and a half, two years. These days 11 young people have received diplomas for completing their education at the Faculty of Physics and Technology at V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University. Only two of them could touch the hard copies of the documents directly (see the picture by Viktoriya Popenko).

On December 26, the University was informed that Lilia Lazurenko, a graduate of the Faculty of Sociology, was awarded the "Steel Cross" badge by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny.

This distinction is awarded to servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for carrying out the combat missions, as well as operations to maintain peace and security, high indicators in combat training, carrying out combat duty, guard (internal) service in everyday activities. On one hand, I am proud to be the Professor of the University where Lilia studied. On the other hand, it is a pity that girls have to devote themselves to war rather than peaceful purposes.

No to war!

Update on December 26, 2022:
The war of russia against Ukraine is under way. Despite the absence of loud news from it, russian bandits are shelling Kharkiv every day. In Summer, they did it chaotically to provide panic among the population to break the will to oppose. Now, during about the last month they intensively destroy the energy infrastructure of Ukraine. In the best case, people know when they can use the power supply for three or four hours a day. However, russian missiles often break these plans. Power supply is significant for any sphere of life. It is especially important to have communication with colleagues and relatives, which also needs power supply of communication devices (not only smart-phones). The hospital I support efficiently depends on uninterrupted power supply. Its absence can result in death of patients. That is why I ask for donations to purchase power generators for our hospital.

Update on December 21, 2022: 
Dear all!

300 days have passed since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia to Ukraine on December 20. Russian bandits continue saying that they kill us to make us free and to stop the war, that their missiles bring peace to Ukrainians. Surely if their plan to kill all then Ukrainians realizes then the war stops. I hope that they will not succeed, that the civilized world will not permit this crime.

As reported by Kharkiv military regional administration, 1,663 civilian people, including 74 children, were killed by the occupiers in Kharkiv Region since February 24. Hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their houses in the Kharkiv Region. Some of them have already come back, most of them stay abroad or in the West of Ukraine still.

Many people had to move from their houses which are now temporarily occupied by russian bandits in Kharkiv Region. 178 children with their families who moved from territories liberated from the enemy are now living in the University dormitories. The University had arranged the fest on the occasion of St. Nicholas Day (see picture) for these children with usual sweet gifts.

Many people from the University staff could not leave Kharkiv and stay there with their children. The University trade union section had organized the fest on occasion of St. Nicholas Day (see pictures) for young kharkovites with songs and dances around the Christmas tree, and sweets.

Christmas brings the hope for the Victory also to the Hospital which is supported by "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" (see the picture). I am very thankful to everybody who did not get tired from the war and continue to support Ukraine and its army which defends Ukraine and the entire world from terrorist state.

No to war! Merry Christmas!

Update on December 18, 2022:

Dear all,

one can wrongly conclude from news that nothing significant happens on the front. However, the war is under way. And every day, soldiers die. Yesterday, my colleague, the dean of the Faculty of Physics reported about the death of his graduate.

“A 2009 graduate of the Department of Astronomy and Space Informatics, Faculty of Physics at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University Roman Krymsalyuk died defending Ukraine at the front. From the first days of the war, a real hero volunteered to defend our city, our country without any doubts.
He worked as a teacher in Physics at the secondary school in one of the villages in Kharkiv Region (pictures are taken from the site of the school https://www.facebook.com/groups/MalinovskiLyceum1/). Colleagues and parents of his schoolchildren remember him as an intelligent, purposeful and reliable person and an excellent specialist.

Everyone, who knew him, worked with him, befriended him and dreamed of a happy future in a free country, will keep a grateful memory of Roman.”

No to war!

Update on December 15, 2022:
Dear all,

On December 14, my colleague, dean of the Faculty of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism announced about one more victim of the war among her students.

“On December 10, 2022, Yehor Shumaev, a 3rd-year student of Kharkiv University, received a severe shrapnel wound to the head during a combat mission. He defended Kharkiv from the first days of the full-scale russian invasion in the ranks of the Military Police. Then he defended Donbas in the ranks of the Armed Forces. Yehor was known to the entire faculty as a responsible, decent, faithful friend and good organizer, always cheerful and smiling.
To our great regret, Yehor has passed away. We shall remember him as a Hero, as a Man who loved Ukraine with all his youthful heart and gave the most precious thing, his life, for our freedom. Heroes do not die - now we understand that these are not just words, they are the truth.”

No to war!

Update on December 11, 2022: 
Dear all,

My colleague, a Professor of the School of History at V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University Yevhen Zakharchenko visited his first place of employment five days ago. It was one of the best Kharkiv gymnasium – gymnasium No. 46 (see the picture made by Yevhen). It was one of the basis of practice for the students-historians of the University.

Here Dr. Zakharchenko worked as a history teacher in 2011-2014 with great colleagues and no less great schoolchildren! Despite the missile attack in 2022, the educational process for schoolchildren continued, the practice of students took place.

Yevhen thanks the Armed Forces of Ukraine that Ukraine and Kharkiv persevered, that not all of Kharkiv is like the building of the gymnasium in the picture, and that Professors can teach, and teach the history of Ukraine, and not only it, according to the Ukrainian curriculum!

Let's remember everyone in the ranks of the Armed Forces who gave their lives defending Ukraine, and honor all the living who are fighting for the preservation of its independence and complete liberation!

Update on December 3, 2022:
Dear all,

As I have already mentioned, Kharkiv University was established in November 1804. The University media-studio prepared a video to this date. The video shows the University life before February 24 and after the direct russian invasion. The invasion caused destruction to the buildings of the University (a few seconds 1:37-1:38 are devoted to the building of our Faculty). It significantly changed our manner of providing education, but it did not change our desire to be free and independent. Moreover, the invasion had strengthened our willness to have nothing in common with russian federation. However, the joint border is what we cannot change.

The students of Ukrainian Universities have a right to continue studying and not go to the Army. However, many of them went to the Army voluntarily. About a month ago, one of my students was wounded. He was operated at the hospital to which our friends from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" provide regular support. Now he is at the front again and sent the pictures of his helmet broken by the mine fragment.

No to war!

Update on November 26, 2022:
Dear all,

November 26 is the Day of memory to victims of Holodomor in Ukraine known also as Terror-Famine. Several times in the XX-th century Moscow power arranged an artificial famine in Ukraine. In particular, in 1932-1933, communist power killed millions of Ukrainian people by starvation. There was no drought. Everything was O.K. with harvest. But all the food was removed by force from farmers. Workers in Ukrainian cities had special cards to buy food in shops or in canteens at the factories.

When a boy, I didn't even know anything about this despite my family had suffered directly and a lot from Holodomor. I studied history with interest at school. There was no mention of Holodomor in school text-books. We studied the special subject “History of CPSU” at the University (history of the Communist Party of Soviet Union) with passing the exam. I passed with “excellent”, but the text-book mentioned only lonely cases. The text-book, authored by one of the communist party leaders, claimed that Moscow condemned these lonely cases.

After Ukraine became independent in 1991, archives were opened and it appeared that scales were awful, and the terror was arranged with the purpose to break resistance of Ukrainian farmers to Soviet power. Army was widely used to exclude food from farmers. Soldiers were encouraged – they were permitted to send some part of the excluded food to their own families. Until 1941 (I do not know exactly, but at least in the 1930s) farmers could not serve in the Red Army. Ukrainian farmers could not leave their villages: soldiers stayed at railway stations and did not permit farmers to go away by train.

My mother’s auntie Sanya was deaf. When I saw her first at the age of about ten years, I asked my mother about the reason (nobody other among relatives missed hearing). Mother answered quickly: “shockers beat”. I was surprised since the word “shocker” was applied under the Soviet power to indicate persons who worked very well. And I asked my mother for more details. She understood that said more than it was permitted and stopped the conversation. I have forgotten about the talk. But after 1991, another auntie of my mother – Galya – visited our family one day and explained at the request of my brother. This is what she told us. People in the village, where Sanya lived, have known that soldiers approach them with the purpose to remove food, first of all grain. Sanya’s husband got their children and ran to the forest. He called Sanya with him, but she left at home. She was sure that nothing could happen. She was already a member of the collective farm. Moreover, she was the head of a small group of women who grew sugar beet. They transferred ALL the grain, which they had in their small private field, to the collective farm. She had nothing (even the smallest reason) to be punished for. Nevertheless, the soldiers came. They did not believe her that there was no grain in the household. They beat her until blood started to flow from her ears. She became deaf after that.

This is only one episode from those my grandmother Galya told me and my brother. It is beyond my strength to write everything. Moreover, she did not tell about her own tragedy: both two her first children died from famine in 1933…

These months Moscow tries again to kill Ukraine, this time – with weapons. I am thankful to the Ukrainian Army for the defense and to all the civilized world for the support.

Evil cannot overcome! No to war!

Update on November 24, 2022:
Dear all,

School of Physics and Technology at V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University celebrated its sixty years anniversary on November 21. I was busy with arrangement of the celebrating meeting in zoom. That is why I have the break in my diary here. The meeting was successful since most (but not all) of students, professors, researchers, graduates and simply friends succeeded in joining the meeting. Some of them had not power supply in the places they stay now; then they applied smart phones. In particular, the President of the University as well as the President of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine had greeted the staff via zoom.

However, the war is under way. It lasts for nine months already. Every day russian bandits send their missiles to Ukraine. Despite almost all the territory of my native Kharkiv region is liberated, the enemy shoots from its territory. The last month, just energy infrastructure is the main target of the shelling. For instance, yesterday, only those my students could listen to my lecture who are abroad. All the students who stay in Ukraine had not any communication channels.

Today morning, I was unsuccessful to reach any of my colleagues by the phone. Exclusively, one of my friends, who works at Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, reported at ten o’clock that he was at the work place with nine other colleagues. They work regardless of the possible shelling on the Institute.

No to war!

Update on November 13, 2022:

Dear all!
1. Ukrainian administrative system is such that Kharkiv district consists of several regions. Thanks to foreign humanitarian and military support, the Ukrainian army almost completely liberated the territory of Kharkiv district. However, every day, russian bandits are shelling those regions which are closer to the Ukrainian-russian border. Civilian infrastructure suffers from the shelling. Fortunately, during the last day, medics did not record any wounded among the civilian population.
2. Demining works are ongoing in the district. Over the past day, 404 explosive objects were neutralized by pyrotechnicians of the State Emergency Service.
3. Honorary doctor of Kharkiv University Serhiy Zhadan lived several years ago in the same street as I lived on February 24, 2022. Several days ago, he visited the place where he lived. The self-picture is attached. One can see the building where Mr. Zhadan lived - destroyed by russian missile.

No to war!

Update on November 12, 2022:

Dear all, this morning I planned to write to my diary a message about peaceful issue – about how my classmate successfully gathers harvest despite the war, despite mines left by enemies in the fields... However, my colleague – the dean of the Faculty of Computer Science has reported the sad news.

“Volodymyr Ivashchenko, a third-year student of the Faculty of Computer Science, died in the battle for Ukraine while performing a combat mission. Volodymyr went to the Army as a volunteer. He was reliable comrade, principled, brave, energetic both in studies, and in peaceful life, and at the front... He had so many plans ahead, he was burning with ideas, but first of all he had to defend his native country from the Moscow horde. Volodymyr Ivashchenko gave the most precious thing - his life, so that we live, so that Ukraine lives. Volodymyr, a young man with a bright soul and a brave heart, will be missed by everyone - parents, family and friends, students, those with whom he liberated his native land side by side...”

No to war!

Update on November 2, 2022: 
Dear all!
I have a colleague who lived in about one kilometer from my house before February 24. His name is Volodymyr Yefymenko. After February 24, he had to leave Kharkiv with his family and went to his relatives in a country-side. Now, the Ukrainian Army has almost liberated the Kharkiv region from russian bandits, and Volodymyr decided to come back. You can see the leftovers of his apartment in the pictures. He lived on the seventh floor in a nine-storey building. He had taken the pictures from a street and from the neighboring building. His apartment cannot be restored, at least in the near future. These days, he lives in an apartment in the University student dormitory.

The other two pictures show the doctors from Kharkiv hospital, whose faces we are permitted to demonstrate, with the laptops from Bruchsal. I thank once again to all our friends from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" for significant support to Kharkiv hospital.

No to war!

Update on October 31, 2022:
Dear all!
My friend Olena Rofe-Beketova has sent pictures of the destruction in the neighborhood of her house in North-Eastern part of Kharkiv. The pictures were taken on October 8. I should like to emphasize: there are no military objects in the pictures. Civilian people only lived in all these buildings. Now, the people have to move either to western regions of Ukraine or to other countries.
No to war!

Update on October 30, 2022:
MANY THANKS to everybody from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" for powerful support to Kharkiv hospital during all these eight months of the war. On October 29, twelve boxes more were delivered to Kharkiv. There were forty two laptops, ten power banks, five thermoses, warm wear and boots, including twelve pairs of new boots, dishes... Everything was asked by Kharkiv volunteers in advance.

Thanks a lot!

No to war!

Update on October 27, 2022:
Dear all,

The war is under way. The tactics of russian bandits has changed. The last days they target their missiles to the power and heat infrastructure objects – those economic objects, which provide power and heat supply to Ukrainians. In Kharkiv, almost all the buildings (especially, those high-rise) are heated not individually but from those objects. Very often now, much more often than previously, my colleagues have to postpone their lectures to the students because of absence of power supply and do not reply to my phone calls because their devices blow off and cannot be charged. The latter (absence of communication) is especially terrible since I cannot know the reason of silence in my phone and have to consider all the possible versions.

I have many friends all over the Ukraine. One of them, Volodymyr Dariy, lives in Zaporizhzhya. A few days ago, he visited Kharkiv. His son works in the hospital, which is supported by “DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal". The young man have shown Saltivka (the region in Kharkiv, where I lived before February 24) to the parents. My friend knows about the russian crimes from TV and from his own experience. However, he was deeply impressed by the views of destroyed buildings. He phoned to me with the words: “Now I understand why you left your apartment”. His pictures are applied.

No to war!

Update on October 15, 2022:
Dear all!

On October 14, Ukraine has a national holiday - the Day of Defenders of Ukraine. (It coincides also with some religious holiday, but this is a sphere wherein I am not sufficiently strong.) What I want to stress in regard to the Day is as follows. Originally the Day was established as the "Day of the Defender of Ukraine" which assumed the defenders-men. However, now the title is changed and sounds as that of defenders: both men and women.

That day, Kharkiv University community gathered in front of the entry to the University history museum. For many years we had the marble board there with the names of those University students and professors who died in WWII. Now, we have there the second board – with the names of those from the University community who have died defending Ukraine in the current war of russia against our Motherland.

The picture was taken by my colleague who was called for military service in 2014 after he applied for a Doctoral degree (We have in Ukraine the Candidate degree in science and Doctoral degree. Then Sergey Utevsky was already the Candidate in Biology and applied that time for Doctoral degree). When it was the time to defend the degree in the scientific council, he was given several days as a vacation to defend. After successful defense he returned to his detachment to continue opposing to russian aggression. After two years of military service he is a Professor in Biology at the University.

When the second board was open, there were only three names there. And everybody present at the ceremony expressed the wish to avoid the appearance of new names thereon. However, one can see twenty five stories of the victims more in the picture whose names will be put on the board after the Victory.

All week long, every day russian bandits shell Kharkiv with missiles from their territory. Those villages and small cities around Kharkiv suffer more which are in close vicinity of the board. Every day Ukrainian soldiers defuse several hundreds of mines left by russian bandits on liberated territories.

Kharkiv University works. I lecture on-line to my students who are now staying in different European countries.

No to war!

Update on October 8, 2022:
Dear all!

We have day 227 of the war if to calculate from February 24, 2022 instead of 2014.

I start my day with news from Kharkiv Regional Military Administration. As usually, the report contains the list of places wherein russian bandits launched rocket strikes. The launches were carried out from the territory of russian federation which is too close to Kharkiv. The sports complex, non-residential premises, farm buildings, cars, garages were damaged, and there were hits in open areas. Rescuers extinguished several fires. According to information of the regional Center of Emergency Medical Assistance, 6 people were hospitalized during the day, including 4 - as a result of mine explosions. During the day, the pyrotechnic units of the State Emergency Service removed and neutralized 695 explosive objects more.

Several days ago, russian occupiers arranged so-called sham referenda in four occupied regions of Ukraine. russian propaganda claims that 66.43% of the population took part in the "referendum" and 93.11% of them voted to join Russia. I put below what mother of my colleague says about this event. She is a doctor and was born in South of Ukraine which is now temporary occupied. That is why she has a lot of friends all over the Ukraine including the regions where sham referenda took place.

“For the first time in a long time, I was able to call a friend in occupied Melitopol, and she told me about the "referendums" for joining russia. So, during the days of the "referendums", the city died out. People did everything possible to stay at home and not be caught by armed "election commissions" who walked the streets and forced people to vote. My friend works in a hospital and she had to go to work. Thus, she got up extremely early in order not to meet with the "commission". During the days of the "referenda", she says that there were almost no patients: everyone sat at home. That day, returning from the hospital, she saw the "commission" waiting just outside the entrance to her house. She pretended she didn't live there, walked past, went to a friend's house, stayed there until late at night, and then took a taxi home, avoiding being forced to vote.”

No to war!

Update on October 2, 2022: 

MANY THANKS!!! 24 boxes more are already in Kharkiv. Thanks a lot to everybody from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" for significant support to Kharkiv hospital all this war time.

No to war!

Update on October 1, 2022:

Dear all,

russian aggression against Ukraine continues. russian bandits made all crimes which exist: killed, raped and tortured civilians, destroyed schools, universities, churches and libraries, occupied nuclear power plant… Their crimes were especially awful at the occupied territories.

After seven months of unsuccessful efforts to occupy Ukraine with a professional army, russian federation announced mobilization. Does russia expect to achieve those objectives, which the professional army was not able to do, with amateur one? And now the world can see that not only their emperor is ill – crowds came out to Red square to celebrate the mobilization. I am not sure that those russians, who tried to leave russia during the last days, condemn the war. I suggest that they do not want to die at the war, but there is no basis to exclude that they endorse what russia does in Ukraine.

Why do we oppose it? We never threatened to russian federation. Ukraine has all the usual civilized agreements: on friendship, good neighborliness, mutual aid… Moreover, russian federation promised to protect Ukraine in any military conflict after Ukraine took out its nuclear weapons and enriched Uranium to russian federation. Ukrainian people stand for their motherland, for their right to live in a free democratic country. We hate slavery.

For more than seven months Ukrainian militaries (both men and women) defend Ukraine and the entire world against wild barbarians. We are very thankful to all the progressive mankind for powerful support both in respect of humanitarian aids and weapons. Each unit of modern weapon saves lives of Ukrainian militaries and civilians.

Yesterday I received two messages from my colleagues in Kharkiv. First, our student was wounded by russian bandits and is now in Kharkiv hospital. Second, he was successfully operated on and the fragment was removed from his neck. Just to clarify. Although it is war time, students and professors are not required to go to the army. However, they have the right. This boy is not alone who realized this right. By the way, it is just that hospital which is supported by "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" all these war times.

No to war!

Update on September 25, 2022:
Dear all,

this video

is about Pyatykhatky (in Ukrainian “a village with five houses”). Long ago (before 1955), it was a small village to the North of Kharkiv. Last years, it was the northernmost point of Kharkiv city. The city ends there and the Kharkiv region starts after the district road.

I was born there in 1962. I studied at school (4:36-6:00 in the video) there with my school friends. I know those three women who speak at the beginning. The first worked with my mother. The second was one year older at school. The third is younger than me, and I remember her from the school years. The temporary director (the man who speaks in front of the school building) was a history teacher when I was a schoolboy.

In my childhood, Pyatykhatky was an “academic town”, since Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (a nuclear research institution which was a leader in the USSR in the field of radiation material science) was the main enterprise in Pyatykhatky. Most of its population worked in the Institute either as researchers or as supplementary staff like my parents.

In Pyatykhatky, I studied at the University, since the Faculty of Physics and Technology was situated there in the neighborhood with the Institute. I lived in Pyatykhatky till 1994. I worked there at the Faculty till February 24, 2022.

In the video, one can see that Pyatykhatky looks now as a city-miracle because of russian shelling.

No apology to russian bandits!

Update on September 19, 2022 (2):
Dear all!
My classmate (we studied with Yeugen Bogdanovych at the University) who lives in Kharkiv visited his cottage which is situated on the territory recently liberated from russian bandits. Despite mines, which the enemy left in the village, Yeugen made a set of pictures which demonstrate almost complete destructions. Some pictures of the cottage how it looked earlier are added just for comparison.
No to war!

Update on September 19, 2022 (1):
Dear all!
Last time I wrote about Borys Krasylnykov who went to the Ukrainian Army as a volunteer and was killed defending Kharkiv. I paid special attention to his MSc certificate which was damaged by the mine fragment. His widow Victoriya Bakirova writes: “Boris died during the explosion and was under rubble. I know that at the time of his death the certificate was kept by Borys at his place of service, he took all important documents with him, and refused to leave them at home. I know that "physically" at that terrible time, the certificate was not with him directly, but in his bag. Almost none of those documents and things were preserved...what was found during the demolition of the rubble was given to me."

Update on September 15, 2022:

Dear all!

Last days, I am in good humor, since Ukrainian army has liberated several villages and small towns form the enemy. However, these achievements are of very high price. I have looks at the University site https://karazin.ua/news/

It announces about more victims among our students and graduates.

1. Ivan Luchko, a student of the Faculty of History, died while performing his military duty in the ranks of the Armed Forces on September 11. At the very beginning of the large-scale invasion, the boy transferred from full-time to part-time education and joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to defend the Motherland. Ivan Luchko served as a mortarman, took part in battles in the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Being a student, he specialized in the Department of History of Ukraine. This year, he should have written his bachelor's thesis, but instead he passed the most difficult exam on humanity and died liberating Ukraine!

2. The price of the war unleashed by the Russian aggressor is terrible. The war takes away the best sons of Ukraine... Borys Krasilnikov, a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the Karazin University, died while defending our land from the invaders. Boris was a volunteer. He defended Kharkiv. He could still do many useful things for the family and the country. Protecting its freedom and independence, he gave the most valuable thing - his life. In 2013, Boris Krasilnikov graduated from our university with a degree in "Jurisprudence" and became a Master of Law. He was very proud of his university and the education he received. According to the feedback of teachers and fellow students, he was a good student and a wonderful person. The university diploma was with him when he died from a shrapnel wound...
No to war!

Update on September 10, 2022:
Dear all!

Saturday morning starts with news. Last 200 days the news is about the war. The war in 21–th century is something out of my mind.

The first news this morning is tragic. My graduate Artur Omarov writes. “Yesterday, while carrying out her official duties to protect Ukraine from russian aggression, a border guard Alyona Butenko was killed near Kharkov. She was my good friend, a friend of our family. She was a kind, sensitive, bright person. She was a mother of three minor daughters.” Note, Alyona had the right according to the law to stay at home with three children. However, she had decided to defend our Motherland in the Ukrainian Army.

My colleague, dean of the Faculty of Sociology, writes about the death of their graduate Vlas Lisnyi. “On the night of September 5, russian missile hit his group. They say he didn't feel anything. The attached picture was his last photo sent to his family about an hour before his death. He asked to tell his daughters that they are the best in the world. He asked to hug Yolanda and pat Ursula on the head. He wished all the best to his younger daughter on the occasion of her first birthday despite not spending the day with the family.”

My graduate Oryna Ivashtenko, who studies in Israel now, shares the pictures of her secondary school in Kharkiv, which was destroyed by russian missiles this week.

No to war!

Update on September 9, 2022: 
Dear all!

Last days, brief positive information comes from Ukrainian authorities on liberation of several villages by Ukrainian Army. These achievements are reached by highest price of lives of Ukrainian militaries.

On September 8, administration of Kharkiv University reported on the death of Dmytro Shapoval, a graduate of the Faculty of History. He was killed by russian bandits while serving his military duty in the Kherson region (south of Ukraine) on July 19, 2022.

While studying at the faculty, Dmytro was one of the most active students of his year, participated in student creativity competitions, scientific conferences, and archaeological expeditions. He specialized in the Department of History of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages, researched the society of the period of the Roman Empire.
After completing his studies, he built a career in the field of tourism and hospitality. At various times, he worked as a chief coordinator of the guide department of "Chernobyl Tour". Practitioner-physiognomist, one of the consultants and leader of physiognomic workshops "United Physiognomics Center".
Dmytro Shapoval is the twentieth in the list (https://karazin.ua/universitet/virtualnyi-memorial-pamiati-zahyblykh-u-viini-z-rf/karazintsi-iaki-zahynuly-zakhyshchaiuchy-ukrainu-v-rosiisk/dmytro-shapoval-vypusknyk-istorychnoho-fakultetu/) of the University graduates who are known for us as the victims of the russian war against Ukraine.

No to war!

Update on August 31, 2022:
Dear all!

1. Yesterday, approximately at 10 am, russian bandits massively shelled the center of Kharkiv, probably with a self-propelled artillery installation "Pion". Residential buildings, places of rest, and cars were damaged, several fires broke out.

As the Center for Emergency Medical Assistance reports, 5 people in total were killed as a result of this shelling, 13 more civilians were injured, including a 6-year-old child. The child did not require hospitalization. 8 civilians in total were hospitalized with injuries.

2. The Dean office of the Faculty of Chemistry, our University, reports that the student Yaroslav Mayboroda was killed. He was 22 years old. He defended his native country as a volunteer (students have no duty to go to the army until they study) of the military unit “Azov”. Yaroslav was a good and bright person, interested in the prospects of organic chemistry and IT. Our University family will always miss the boy.

Every day Ukraine loses its sons and daughters who did not lack the courage to lay down their lives for the will of the Motherland.

No to war!

Update on August 30, 2022:
Dear all!

The shell fragment was found today by my colleague – Professor of Kharkiv University Serhiy Utevskiy – near his house after russian shelling.

No to war!

Update on August 28, 2022 (2):
Dear all!

During the week I have no time to look through all the mail messages. I do it on weekends. Last week two my former students sent the attached pictures to me.

Vitaliy Tretyakov. August 24, 2022: “Two poems by Yesenin and an aphorism by Kozma Prutkov flew into the yard of my house yesterday... The gray fragments are very light, probably some kind of aluminum-magnesium alloy. The black ones, on the contrary, are very heavy. I just walked around the yard and found this after russian shelling. In general, there is enough for a whole collection of russian poetry of the Silver Age....”

Comparison of the projectile fragments with poems is an irony over those who cannot vote for sanctions against russia with reference to “great russian culture”. One can see on the picture the inscription on one of the fragments: “made in russia”.

Artem Manzyuk. August 28, 2022. He simply sent two pictures of his house in Kharkiv suburbs: one as it was in Autumn 2021, and the second as it looks now after a russian missile has hit it. Fortunately, Artem with his family left the house in March 2022.

No to war!

Update on August 28, 2022 (1):

Dear all!

Ukraine and my native city Kharkiv suffer from war every day.

During the last day one civilian person was killed by russian missile and two others were wounded in the Kharkiv region.

In the previous night two missiles hit downtown. The attached picture was made on August 27 by Oleksandr Brynza. One can see Pavlivska square, and the former so-called Peasant house in ther background. The building relates to the rebirth of Ukrainian literature in 20-th of the previous century. There is a hole from russian missile in the foreground as the missile was released on houses which looks like a metaphor on russian literature both classic and modern.

No to war!

Update on August 25, 2022:
Dear all!

Yesterday, Ukraine celebrated its national holiday – Day of Independence. This day 1991, our Parliament adopted the decision to be independent of Soviet Union. The independence from Soviet Union (russia) was not a gift for us. Ukraine has chosen it in hard and bloody struggle during tens and hundreds years. During the last 200 years, russian Government dozen times announced Ukrainian language to be forbidden. Ukrainian theaters were forbidden to play performances in Ukrainian. Our national hero Taras Shevchenko was punished by tsarism via banning to paint and write. Soviet Union (russia) killed millions of Ukrainians with artificial famine in 1933-1934. Ukrainian heroes struggled against soviet regime until 1991. Soviet power arrested and imprisoned them in 60-s, 70-s and 80-s… All who struggled for Ukrainian independence were announced enemies of Soviet people. Ukrainian children studied at schools that those Ukrainians who struggled for the Independence were enemies…

Now Ukraine defends its Independence in the real battles with real victims. However, the enemy is the same. I write all above to demonstrate that the aggression from russia against Ukraine is not occasional. It is the continuation of russian policy in respect to Ukraine. However, the other neighbors of russia are also well acquainted with russian ‘friendship”. Finland was attacked by russia in 1939, Afghanistan – in 1978-1989. Russia invaded in Georgia in 2008... Russian “peaceful” purposes are well-known all over the world.

Yesterday, Ukrainians of Munich, Germany, gathered on one of its largest squares to celebrate the state holiday (see picture by Oleksiy Girka). Ukrainians in Kharkiv, Ukraine, were asked by the local military administration not to go out of shelters to prevent victims from russian missiles. And russian terrorists did shell Kharkiv region yesterday as usually. A building of a school, private houses, economic buildings were destroyed with several fires. In several villages, grass burned in open territories in the result of russian shelling. Preliminary, nobody was killed yesterday in Kharkiv region. Two men only were wounded by russian bandits.

No to war!

Update on Friday, August 19, 2022:

Dear all!

It is impossible to suggest something new in the field of crimes which russian bandits did not realize till now. Probably, nuclear weapons could be more dangerous… Nevertheless, some politicians continue communicating with russian leaders.

Yesterday, the enemy destroyed the building where the Department of Physics of Kharkiv National Polytechnical University was situated. One of my graduates, Kseniya Minakova, is a Professor of the Department. She provides the pictures of what was left after russian firing. Fortunately, the staff of the Department is alive – this makes a hope that the activities can be renovated.

No to war!

Update on Thursday, August 18, 2022: 

Dear all!

Every day, one can read news about russian war against Ukraine. I start every day with searching info: what happened in Ukraine and specifically in my native city Kharkiv. It is situated in about 70 km from the border with russia. Russian bandits can fire on Kharkiv directly from their own territory even without moving weapons to Ukrainian territory. Kharkiv (as many large cities) consists of parts, which earlier were separate villages with their own names. Now, these names are those of the parts of the city. One can often hear in news about russian firing on Saltivka. It is a northeast part of Kharkiv where I lived last thirty years and which is the first to suffer from russian missiles. Yesterday Russian bandits fired on Saltivka once again. Among the other, a dormitory was damaged. Kharkiv regional military administration reports on seven people been killed in this dormitory and eleven been wounded. My comrade who is a volunteer with Kharkiv medical service wrote that the killed people were deaf and did not hear the signals of air alarm. This also caused some additional problems for rescuers with searching people under the rubble.

Yesterday, I talked with my daughter in law. Her classmate has personal misfortune. The father of the classmate lives on the territory occupied now by russian bandits. The man was arrested and imprisoned. Luckily, his wife knows the place where he is now and can provide a food for him. He did nothing wrong. He was chosen randomly. The bandits force him to say something anti-russian or pro-Ukrainian either to report about his colleagues who are against the russian invasion. KGB acted in such a manner in 1930s in USSR – those times are called even in russian history as “great terror”.

No to war!

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, August 12, 2022:

Dear all!

Russian Federation looks like and behaves like a country “vice versa”. They announce that they do not carry out any war – only special military operation, but apply heavy weapons and occupy Ukrainian territory. They proclaim that they liberate Ukrainians, but kill us and destroy out cities and villages. Last days, newspapers write about russian nuclear terrorism and blackmail, but they write to their citizens that Ukraine is firing on Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. (Note, the NPP is the largest in Europe; it is occupied by russian bandits for several weeks.)
I have received the message from my graduate who lives in Energodar (the city in Zaporizhzhya region, where the NPP stays and its staff lives). He writes the following:

“This is what is happening now in Energodar and in the area around the city of nuclear workers. russian occupiers are playing a card that they have repeatedly "run" in the scenario of the occupied territories of Donbass. They fire on our homes, mine with cluster shells, and then fly in like "doves of peace" with a camera crew and make a picture of how good they are.
And this propaganda often works among those who was preliminary prepared by watching russian TV, which completely cut off all the remnants of a critical vision.
Here is one of the examples. An article in a russian telegram-channel reports about how Ukrainian Army fired on the fire department in Energodar. Moreover, they prove the info by pictures of the destroyed buildings of department.
However! Those who live in Energodar immediately see, that something is wrong with the department. Let apply Google – it finds the pictures which were used by russian bandits. The first picture shows the fire department in Kyiv, which was destroyed by russian bandits on May 5, 2022. The second picture was taken from news published on May 25, 2021 (!) about the fire in one of the garages in Energodar.
Summary: the pictures are false. It appears that the report in general is false.
Therefore, I advise you not to trust the information provided by the occupiers. Always think, ask questions and believe in the Ukrainian Armed Forces!
Glory to Ukraine!”

I should like to add that the false is obvious for those who live directly in Energodar and see that the pictures are wrong, and know that the fire department was not destroyed. But many people, especially those, who was born in the Soviet Union, trust to russian propaganda as they trusted to Communist paper “Pravda” (“truth” in russian). They trusted that the Soviet Union liberated Afghanistan from American occupation. The paper wrote and the Soviet people trusted that East Germans were happy to be separated from West Germany. They continue to trust Moscow until now.

Kharkiv University news reports about the contribution of its professors to the future Victory:

“The employees of Kharkiv University do not stand aside and each in his place, sometimes risking his own life, are bringing our victory closer with all possible forces. In particular, the contribution of Timur Malafeyev, associate professor of the University, was highly appreciated and noted. He was awarded a medal of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. He received the award for personal merits and a significant contribution to the defense of Ukraine and the Kharkiv region, as well as for the organization of humanitarian support for the city of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region.”

No to war!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, August 6, 2022:

Dear all!

Very often, I cannot write anything new to the diary because my diary is not that of a traveler. It is extremely hard to write about a death in principle. And it is even harder to write about the deaths of those whom I knew. Last week brought some sad news.

Vitaly Savko, a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of Kharkiv University, was seriously wounded during a combat mission near the village of Pokrovske of the Donetsk region. He had shown courage and heroism. As a result of the wound he died on August 2, 2022. A Professor, who taught Vitaly, wrote the following.

“It is difficult to comprehend the loss of such a kind, sincere, cheerful person as Vitaly was. He easily found a common language with people, always had a positive attitude towards life, and his smile brightened up the audience. His determination, stability, loyalty to his own convictions determined the path of his life. He always believed that culture should be protected in the classroom, on the pages of books, and on the battlefield!”

Yaroslav Hrydasov, an employee of the Department of Security of the University, was killed while carrying out his military duty in the Dergachi direction near Kharkiv. With the beginning of a full-scale war, Yaroslav volunteered for the Territorial Defense Forces and stood up for the defense of our Motherland. He was a true patriot, a bright and kind person. The war mercilessly took away the father from two small children...

Senior lieutenant Oleksandr Chaban, a graduate of the Faculty of Sociology, was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky of the third degree (posthumously), by the decree of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, for his personal courage and selfless actions in the defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, loyalty to the military oath. He was an officer defending Kharkiv at the front. A volunteer, he has been defending Ukraine since 2014. And when the russian invasion began on February 24, he again joined the ranks of the Armed Forces. He was killed in battle on July 20. He was the commander of a group that knocked out several enemy tanks. Together with his comrades, they came under fire, and when they were leaving, Alexander covered his comrade with his body. "A real Ukrainian officer, smiling, optimistic, strong, educated, energetic... Graduate of the Faculty of Sociology, Master of Political Science. He could impress with his erudition and unexpected but apt judgments. Sasha never turned 35. But he is in our memory forever. Young, smiling. Ironic. Self-critical. Willed. Ukrainian officer. Defender of Ukraine," friend and colleague Maksym Folomeyev noted in his memoirs about Oleksandr.

Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. We remember the feat of our colleagues! We believe in our Victory!

No to war!

Update by Prof. Girka on Thursday, August 4, 2022:

Dear all!

Last week, Universities in Ukraine started to accept newcomers at bachelor levels. The process has delayed as compared with previous years because of the war. Many children had to change their place of living because of the war including going away from Ukraine. The Universities expect to accept less students this year as compared with the previous years. This will cause decrease of the number of Professors at the Universities. Many of them will never come back to the Universities even after the Victory.

To enter to the University young people have to pass a national multisubject test. The test is arranged simultaneously for all the interested persons all over Ukraine. Keeping in mind our experience of how russian bandits hit religious, cultural and educational buildings and events the Ministry of Education and Science had to apply special measures to prevent informing the enemy about the places of testing with the goal not to let the enemy to hit these places.

Start of educational year for the students of the first year delays to October (usually it started on September 1 in Ukraine).

Kharkiv University announced the possibility for Ukrainian young people who moved to Germany to start their studying at Kharkiv University at the facilities of Munich University.

It is a pity, but Russian “liberators” succeeded a lot in destroying Ukrainian education both building and the system in a whole.

No to war!

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, July 26, 2022:
Dear all!

Every new day brings more sad news about russian shelling on Ukraine. Yesterday, the bandits hit civil structures in the Kharkiv city center.

Chuhuiv, one of Kharikiv satellites, was reported to be hit by twelve russian missiles. In particular, House of Culture was destroyed. Yesterday, four people were rescued from the rubble. The people stayed in the basement of this building used as a shelter. The rescuers have also found the body of a dead thirty-year-old woman and a dead thirty-six-years-old man under the ruins.

Yesterday, the hospital in Kharkiv received the humanitarian aids which came there from Bruchsal. Everything arrived unhurt. Many thanks to patrons from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal": their support to the hospital inspires the doctors and patients who see the proof of international support to their struggle. At the weekend, the next set of aids will start its travel from Germany to Kharkiv.

No to war!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, July 23, 2022:
Dear all!
Every day brings sad news about russian aggression against Ukraine. Yesterday, the site of Kharkiv University reported about the death of Oleksandr Chaban, a graduate of the Faculty of Sociology, MSc of Political Science, the head of the Student Scientific Society of the University in 2009-2013 and the leader of the student self-government of the Karazin University. He was an officer who defended Kharkiv on the front during these four terrible months of the war. A veteran of the ATO, a volunteer, he has been defending Ukraine since 2014. And when the russian invasion began, he again joined the ranks of the Armed Forces. He was killed in battle on July 20. He was the commander of a group that knocked out several enemy tanks. Together with his comrades, they came under fire, and when they were leaving, Oleksandr covered his comrades with his body. He would have turned 35 on August 17. However, fate was different. Daughter Sofia was left without a father.

I say again and again the words of my gratitude to people all over the world for their tremendous support to Ukraine. I am especially thankful to my colleagues from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" whose support to Kharkiv hospital is just what the doctors and patients need just today. The next set of aids is already on the way from Lviv to Kharkiv.

No to war!

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, July 22, 2022:
Dear all!

Every day, Kharkiv military administration reports about the civilian victims of russian war against Ukraine. Yesterday, three civilian persons were killed by russian bandits; 16 persons more were wounded and are in hospitals. Russian missiles hit targets in villages and small towns chaotically in time and space following the tactics of terrorists.

Yesterday my graduates distributed news about death of their classmate Nikolay Zamanov. He was 37 year old. He was not a military. He left his apartment in Kharkiv, which is shelling by russians regularly, and moved with his family to the relatives. They assumed that staying in a village is less dangerous than in large city of Kharkiv. He worked at Institute of Plasma Physics in Kharkiv and planned to defend his PhD thesis this autumn. His wife is our alumna as well. Two Ukrainian children more do not have their father now. The children were “liberated” by russian bandits from happiness.

I use this chance to say once more my words of cordial gratitude to those people in Germany and all over the world who support our resistance to russian state-terrorism. My special thanks to “DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal": humanitarian aids provided by them to Kharkiv hospital helps much. In particular, fans from Bruchsal are very helpful during these hot summer months. Direct money transfer from Bruchsal to Kharkiv volunteers made it possible to repair the building of the hospital after russian missile hit it.

No to war! I pray for the Victory! Criminals should be punished to prevent new wars!

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, July 19, 2022: 
Dear all!

I do not write in this diary every day. I dream about the day when I shall stop the diary with the word “Victory!!!” However, the war of russia against my motherland is under way. No outstanding battles happened this week. And this makes an illusion that nothing happens in principle. This is not the case. Every day my colleagues report from Kharkiv about russian missiles which target that or other part of my native city. Every day regional military administration reports about the victims. One day, they report about two civilian persons killed by russian bandits; the other day – four. Not many?!! But this was a hard grief for their relatives and friends!

It is also very depressing for me to read these reports from Kharkiv about victims of the previous day. After reading the news, I phone to my colleagues and relatives in Kharkiv: “How are you?” It is a happiness if all of them answer immediately. Sometimes I have to wait for the answers. In this case, I persuade myself: “They are alive. This silence – it is because of bad communication.”

Yesterday, my friend of student times sent the picture from Kharkiv to me. One can see projectile fragments in his arms. He gathered the fragments near the building where he works. Shelling from russian side becomes a habitual event.

I ask all the people: war has no right to become a habitual event! No to war! Every day of the war is a grief for the humankind! Stop the war!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, July 9, 2022: 
Dear all!
The war goes on. Yesterday, my students passed my exam in Molecular Physics. 24 students started studying on February 1st. Only 17 are able to continue studying these days. 13 students were lucky to pass me as a Professor on the first try. Four more students will try a little bit later.
Kharkiv regional military administration reports about 4 civilians being killed and 9 who were injured in the Kharkiv region yesterday.
Today a docent of my School of Physics and Technology accepted the exam in Nuclear Physics. One of the students who lives in the occupied territory passed the exam online while staying somewhere in a field where his phone receives the signal from Kharkiv.
Today my colleague, the dean of the School of Bank Business, reported with sadness that his graduate of 2021 was killed near Kharkiv while defending our native city.
No to war!!!

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, July 5, 2022:
Dear all!

Yesterday, I have received a message from my friend Illya who leaves in Kharkiv. He is a very gifted teacher in Physics. He wrote about hitting of russian missiles into the building of secondary school he works in. He finished his message by the words: “russian-speaking Ukrainian nationalist of Jewish nationality”.

Kharkiv police reports on thirty civilians killed by russian shelling in Kharkiv region during the last week.

I cannot get used to read these reports. russian bandits claim that they liberate Ukraine from Nazism. In fact, they liberate Ukrainians from our relatives, peaceful happy life, our homes…

I am very thankful to Ukrainian Army, which defends our people, and to all the democratic world for the support to Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, July 1, 2022: 
Dear all!

Everything is O.K. with my nearest relatives and myself. I have finished my first month working at Max-Planck-Institute of Plasma Physics in Garching. I worked over some problems in Plasma Physics associated with electromagnetic waves of surface type in fusion plasma edge. I have received my author copies of the monograph “SURFACE FLUTE WAVES IN PLASMAS. Eigenwaves, Excitation and Applications” by Igor Girka & Manfred Thumm, Springer.

Last week new huge set of boxes with humanitarian aids came from Bruchsal and Heidelberg to Kharkiv. I am very thankful to the colleagues and our friends from “DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and „Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" as well as volunteers who transferred the essential goods.

European Parliament has accepted Ukraine as the candidate to European Union. On one hand, I am thankful to European countries for this endorsement. On the other hand, Ukraine has paid for this honor by hard victims.

The russian war against Ukraine is under way and it became lingering. The enemy is very large in territory and can spend a long time and many resources in this state on the contrary to Ukraine. Ukraine is also one of the largest in territory countries of Europe. However, all the Ukrainian territory can be fired by russian bandits with missiles, that is why it is impossible to make business as it was before February 24.

Last week, one of my graduates phoned to me. His classmate appeared to be in russian captivity since April. The latter was a volunteer of Ukrainian Army and defended his native city of Kharkiv. Parents have no communication with a son. russian side decelerates the exchange of captives.

Last week, russian cassette missile “uragan” has destroyed the buildings of one of hospitals in Kharkiv, namely, the roof, surgical room, and the room of radiography. Nobody was present in the rooms at the time of shelling – the doctors were in the shelter.

Kharkiv citizens suffer from russian fire every day. E.g., Kharkiv regional military administration reports about one man killed and six persons wounded on June 30.

Many thanks to Ukrainian militaries for the resistance to russian invasion and to all the democratic people for the support to Ukraine in our struggle for our right to live in peace and happiness in free, independent, democratic country on the land of our grandparents given to us by God!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, June 25, 2022:
Dear all!
The war goes on. As Kharkiv regional military administration reports, russian bandits killed three people and wounded thirteen civilians in Kharkiv region during June 24.
On the night of June 24, the bandits fired two missiles at the sports complex of the National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute". One of the buildings was significantly damaged. Enemy shelling caused a fire on an area of about 200 square meters. It took four hours to tame the fire.
The sports complex "Polytechnic" had an athletics arena, two swimming pools, a game room, specialized halls for wrestling, gymnastics, table tennis, aerobics, a gym, a stadium with playgrounds for tennis, mini-football and basketball, football. This is the only sports facility in Ukraine, awarded the State Prize in the field of architecture. It had the status of the Olympic training base for Ukrainian national teams. The sports complex was built in 1985-1991, its total area is 8602 square meters.

I am very thankful to Ukrainian militaries for their bravity and to all the democratic world for its support of Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, June 17, 2022:
In my opinion, russia has committed too many crimes during the last three months, each of them could be and should be the subject of contempt, neglect and conviction. Recently, “Science” paid attention to one issue more: “At the Chernobyl nuclear labs, Russian forces have looted or destroyed hundreds of computers, radiation dosimeters, and irreplaceable software and equipment.” I must add: russian bandits occupied one of Ukrainian nuclear power plants – that in Zaporizhzhya. This is the largest NPP in Europe. The Ukrainian government cannot control what happens there. I am not a lawyer but to my mind, this should be qualified as state nuclear terrorism. What do russian militaries do there? Does russian government know about the crime?

Yesterday, I spoke by phone with my classmate, who has been my friend since secondary school years. He had to leave his apartment in Kharkiv and go to another region of Ukraine with his wife and mother. However, his grandsons are in Turkey together with their mother (the daughter of my friend). All of them are alive, however my friend asked: what is the fault that he cannot communicate directly with his grandsons? Children and grandchildren are our simple joy given by God, but many Ukrainians are deprived of this happiness now.

No to war!!!

Update by Prof. Girka on Monday, June 13, 2022:
Dear all!
We use to arrange a meeting of the deans with the rector every Monday. This Monday, our meeting started with sad information about one more victim of the war among the University staff. The engineer of the simulation center of the medical faculty Yevhen Khrapko was killed by russian bandits on June 11, 2022. This happened when he carried out his duties of instructor and combat doctor of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian army.
The longer the war is due the more victims are the war’s harvest.

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, June 10, 2022:
The war goes on. russia has a lot of soldiers and
does not care about their lives. russia has a lot of
missiles and projectiles which every day
randomly fire on my native city of Kharkiv,
including civilians. Terrorism works in such a
way.
Kharkiv regional military administration reports
that last night, the enemy again terrorized the
population of Kharkiv and the region with
artillery and MLRS shelling. During yesterday
two civilians were killed and 15 persons were
wounded in the region. Among them was a
twelve-year-old boy who was hospitalized in the
village of Grushuvakha. Houses, warehouses,
infrastructure facilities were damaged as well.
Coniferous forests and forest belts were burning.
When I write that russia is a state-terrorist, this
is not a hyperbole or literary reception. I had a
talk today with my colleague – a Professor of the
University in Nuclear Physics. This week an
explosion in the neighborhood of the
multistoried house he lives in destroyed the
window in his bedroom. He found two splinters
after returning from the bomb shelter: one in the
wall, and the other – in his pillow. He has been
in a deep depression since that.
Yesterday evening and night, it was raining in
Munich where I live now. I could not start
sleeping because of thunder sounds. I knew that
it was the rain, however my subconscious
remembered the sounds of explosions at the end
of February and at the beginning of March when
I stayed in Kharkiv.
Ukrainian army has much less weapons as well
as much less missiles and projectiles to oppose
russian aggression efficiently. That is why I (a very peaceful person before the russian war against Ukraine) ask all the nations to stop the war by giving Ukrainian army weapons to struggle with the evil.

Update by Prof. Girka on Thursday, June 9, 2022:

• This video (https://www.facebook.com/100036089391880/videos/1664264337272438) 

is about my secondary school. I studied there in 1969-1979. The video is
in Ukrainian. However, the temporary state of the building is visible.
The video is new – I put it here just after I saw it on social nets. The
director visited the building every day after February 24. All the
children went out of the settlement long ago – they studied on-line.
Before the February 24, the director planned to finish his career: he
worked here for 45 years as a teacher and then as a director. Now he
has the goal – to renovate the school.
Kharkiv regional military administration reports that last night the
russian occupiers continued to terrorize the civilian population of the
region with massive shelling. In Kharkiv, shells were directed to a cafe,
school library and a shop. Two people were killed and four people were
injured. The enemy also fired on the villages of Kharkiv region: 7
people were injured; houses, outbuildings, warehouses and garages
were damaged. In the village “Elitne”, a tractor driver was injured - he
exploded on a russian mine in a field.
We also have good news (https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2023).
V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University possesses the first place
among the Universities of Ukraine within the QS ranking.
My deepest gratitude to the Ukrainian armed forces and people all over the world for the support of Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, June 4, 2022: 
Ukraine has been heroically resisting russia's armed aggression
for more than 100 days. The enemy cannot break us and overcome our resistance. Today is the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. 38 children died in the Kharkiv region (and 261
children all over Ukraine) during the 100 days of the war from
the russian shelling. Many children were forcibly transferred
from occupied territory of Ukraine to russia without any permission
from the parents. We will never forgive the occupiers! They will pay for every child's life taken away! My deepest gratitude to Ukrainian armed forces and people all over the world for the support to Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, June 3, 2022:
Today, there are 100 days of Ukrainian struggle against russian invasion. 100 days which demonstrated unity and
indomitable spirit of Ukrainian people and army. During this time, the enemy was unable to achieve any strategic goal,
instead trying to shift its powerlessness to civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian people. In these 100 days, Ukraine has done what seemed impossible, which many people did not want to believe. Ukraine has stopped the "second army of the world", liberated part of our territories and continues to give a decent rebuff to the occupiers. I cordially thank to Ukrainian soldiers!

At the same time I realize that these Ukrainian successes are due to comprehensive support of all democratic mankind. Yesterday, one more set of humanitarian aids came to Kharkiv hospital (see the pictures). This was one more gift from our friends in Heidelberg and Bruchsal: "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal". One more set of aids is already in Muenchen to be further transferred to Kharkiv! I believe in Ukrainian soldiers and international support, and pray for our Victory!

Update by Prof. Girka on Thursday, June 2, 2022:
The war continues. Kharkiv regional military administration reports on one woman being killed during the day in the result of shelling a secondary school; and three persons were wounded in the city. Five more persons were wounded in Kharkiv suburbs.
The city included territories of neighboring villages during its development. Then some parts of the city are administrative buildings, the other – multistoried houses... Some places are parks and gardens, river sides… And some territories in the city are those of the former villages. One of my comrades (a teacher in Physics at a secondary school) lives in such a “former village”, and his own small house. He sent the pictures of his attic to demonstrate how he has to struggle with pans against the rain after the roof was several times pierced by debris of russian missiles.
During the first days of russian aggression I demonstrated the first among Kharkiv secondary schools which were shelled by russian bandits. My colleague who studied in the school made the picture to show that the territory around the school is cleaned, children spend their time at the playground nearby the school, and the building waits for Ukrainian victory over russians when the school will be restored.
I am very thankful to the people and governments all over the world who support our struggle for freedom and independence!

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, May 31, 2022: 
My family and I are in a safe place. I have obtained a position at Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching bei Munich. However, the war is due. There is no outstanding news. This is sad since many Ukrainian people remain under occupation with all the problems of the war. On the other hand, russian bandits also cannot brag about any success. They continue hitting Ukrainian cities, killing civilians, and destroying infrastructure.
On May 15, one of my professors – Andrii Sotnikov returned home to Kharkiv from the village where he stayed for about three months. Yesterday, he was volunteering at the high school. Ye writes: “We moved some furniture from classes to the sports hall.
22 years ago I graduated from here. 3 years ago (after my postdoc period at TU Wien, Austria) I brought my son here to enroll.
It's hard to express my feelings now, when I see all these damages with my own eyes... It's like my heart is grinded to atomic pieces. And every such piece requires a 100-fold revenge to agressors...”
This school is just that one where I studied in 1969-1979.
I am very thankful to the people and governments all over the world who support our struggle for freedom!

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, May 27, 2022:
In afternoon yesterday, we walked with my wife and the grandson around Garching bei Muenchen. The weather was fine. It was sunny after raining in previous days. It was a fest in the city. Many families walked or enjoyed drinks in biergartens. Many people of different age were decorated with Bavarian national clothing. Many children played in the stream. However, they did not touch any fish therein. We were in the spirit of peace and happiness!
When we came back to our apartment, I obtained a video from my comrade in Kharkiv.
Ukraine opposes not to humans, we resist to non-humans. The ill leader gives criminal orders. But dozens of thousands of military men realise these orders and dozens of millions support these orders of their leader, including mothers and wives of those russian soldiers who was killed or can be killed every moment in russian war against Ukraine. Whether all of them are ill?
I am very thankful to people and governments all over the world for your support to Ukraine! And I ask for providing us such a weapon which can guarantee safety for our people! 

Update by Prof. Girka on Sunday, May 22:
The war is due for almost three months. My University also suffered heavy human losses! More than a dozen University professors, staff and students have been killed in these three months of shelling of peaceful residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv by the russian occupiers, as well as in the battles for Kharkiv (with no saying about militaries). The last few days, russian bandits continue shelling my native city, in particular, from their territory. On May 22, nobody (among civilians) was killed in the Kharkiv region, however eleven persons were wounded. Last week, transport restarted its work in Kharkiv; then business can restart its activity.
Nevertheless, Kharkiv University continues to work. On
May 19, our students defended their MSc theses. The war
surely influenced negatively on their quality, but not crucially:
about 50% of those who finish their study at the University
have already published their first scientific papers based on
the master research.
My colleagues who did not leave Kharkiv till now say: it is
not the time to go back home. Shelling is chaotic – russians
do it in day and in night, they shell to different parts of the
city. Nothing is known about my apartment: whether it is safe
or not.
I lived for three weeks in Munich – a city with a powerful
airport. Till now, I worry when I hear the sound of airplane
engines, and then calm down since I have no reasons to worry
in Munich while in Kharkiv, this sound can be that of russian
missiles. Once during the last week, it happened that I asked
my wife automatically in the evening: when the curfew starts
in Munich. Her answer was obvious: there is no curfew in
Munich.
Recently, the journalist Nataliia Zubar made a picture of the
building of my Faculty in Kharkiv. In my opinion, the picture
can be considered as the symbol. The wall is destroyed, but
the memorial plate to Igor Tolmachev (the head of Kharkiv
civil headquarters in 2014-2015, killed by russian
mercenaries) is safe.
I am very thankful to people and governments all over the
world for your support of Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Sunday, May 15, 2022:
1. The russian war against Ukraine goes on for more than
eighty days. As the head of Kharkiv regional military
administration writes, “relative silence has been observed in
Kharkiv for several days now, while the enemy continues to strike
at the settlements of the region. City of Chuguiv was injured again
last night. There, two people were injured, one of them - a 15-
year-old child.”
2. The fourth set of humanitarian goods came to Kharkiv from
Karlsruhe on May 14. I am VERY thankful to colleagues from
"DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and everybody from
"Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" as well as private donors who have both given and are giving
the material (both clothes and food) as well as money to buy what
is needed. The hospital has obtained what they need according to
the list which was agreed on in advance. This help is both
material and moral, both being very important for us. russia
continues the war. Its leaders do not hide that they send armed
forces to change the manner of life in Ukraine. Democratic
nations develop themselves and demonstrate the best examples
to others how to live better. They change life for the better all
over the world in a peaceful manner. Despotic russia lives in such
a manner which any neighbor is afraid of. Then russia tries to use
its ownership of nuclear weapons to make Ukrainians live as
russians do without asking what we think about this idea. They cannot
understand that killing both oursoldiers and civilians cannot provide their
objective. They did not get any lesson from invading Moldova, Georgia
(with no saying about military suppression of the uprisings against communist
dictatorship in Germany in 1953, in Hungary in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in
1968...)… They continue to threaten other countries with the possible future war.
What is also impossible to explain rationally – the population of russia endorses
the russian war against Ukraine! Propaganda is a really powerful force in human
society!
3. A few words about myself and my family. I was born on April 29, 1962
in Kharkiv. My grandson was born on April 29, 2021 in Munich where my son
has a postdoc position at Max-Planck IPP. In February, 2022 we planned to
celebrate our birthdays together in Munich. We purchased the air tickets to LOT
(Polish airlines) for April 14. However, the war started and destroyed our plans.
On February 24, my wife and I were in Kharkiv and suffered from sounds
of shelling. On March 3, I looked into the window of my apartment and saw two
teams of firefighters who extinguished the fire from two russian missiles in two
neighboring multistoried buildings. The next morning, we loaded our car with
the most important things despite the sounds of shelling in the close vicinity and
went to our relatives who lived a few kilometers from our house. The relatives
appeared to be ready to leave their private house despite it was much more
quiet there. On March 5, we together with the relatives departed from Kharkiv,
first to the city of Dnipro. There, the relatives of my son’s colleague in MPIPP let
us live as long as it was necessary. We are very thankful to those people for their
hospitality. One day we spent in Dnipro without hearing any exposures. On
March 7, we moved to the right bank of Dnipro river and spent the night in the
dormitory of Uman University of Gardening. Uman is a small city in Ukraine
which is also known as a pilgrimage site for Breslov Hasidic Jews. It was very
pleasant that the officials of Uman University provided the chance to spend a
night for all the refugees with minor formalities. On March 8, we moved from
Uman to the city of Kremenets. It is situated more closely to the border of
Poland. There, we lived for about two months in the house of the parents of my
son’s other colleague. I had all the conditions there to work with my students, to
control the affairs within my Faculty of the University. Moreover, I celebrated
my birthday there. I could not go to my son and his family in Munich because
during war time all the men younger than sixty years have to stay in Ukraine.
On May 2, I ruled all the formalities with the local administration in Kremenets.
On May 3, I crossed the border Ukraine-Poland. On May 4, I arrived in Munich
in the evening. Now, I am in the apartments provided by MPIPP, Garching. I
plan to get a specific contract with the Institute from June 1 until the situation
in Kharkiv allows me to come back home. I do not know anything about my
apartments in Kharkiv. I hope the destruction is not very strong and I shall be
able to repair everything.
Meanwhile, the war does not stop. In particular, russian bandits continue their efforts in Kharkiv region to expand the occupied territory of Donbass. Bloody fights continue in the city of Mariupol where russians try to make a land corridor from russia to Crimea.
Moreover, I cannot answer the questions: when the war will stop, and how it will stop. If the Ukrainian Army expels the enemy from our territory (which is extremely difficult and takes too many lives of our soldiers) only, then russians can continue shelling from their territory and kill our people. How to stop the war? I think this should be the matter of discussions between the world leaders who have to make joint decisions.
Many thanks to both the population of all over the world and their governments for the powerful endorsement and support to Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Monday, May 9, 2022:
May 9th is a very important day in my consciousness. My grandfathers were about forty years old in 1941. One of my grandfathers was in the Red Army from 1941 and was killed near Stalingrad. The other was in the army from 1943 and died from wounds in 1949. I did not see any of them. There was an uncle of my mother who took part in the war as a car driver and whom I remember well. I never heard him speaking about the war. However, every time, when the family gathered to celebrate a birthday or Christmas…, the grandparents (later, parents) wished to all who were present not to see a war.
Until 1991, I studied history at a secondary school, then at theUniversity. All the time “war” was about 1941-1945. Soviet Union was describedas a winner over Nazi Germany in the war. The text-books told about soviet heroes who liberated Europe from fascism. After 1991, it appeared that in 1939-1941Soviet Union and Germany were allies; that UK, US and other countries also contributed to the victory; that people of East Germany, Poland, Hungary,Czechoslovakia… were not happy to live in “socialist camp” after “liberation”in 1945…
Nevertheless, till February 24, I could not imagine that the population of russian federation who significantly suffered from WWII can approve the full-scale war against Ukraine. I was short-sighted once again. I did not notice russian war in Georgia. I did not take into account russian war in Moldova. Now, my memory returns the frames from the recent russian movies about WWII. In most cases, the war was described like a game, in which russian soldiers easily and merrily killed enemies. The russian war against Ukraine was not occasional. russian leaders prepared the full-scale war against Ukraine in both technical and ideological respects.
Once again, in my opinion, in most cases, soldiers (not generals – they were mostly of russian origin) of different nationalities were together in the stinking trenches of WWII. This did not help. russian soldiers (who are the grandsons of those who died in WWII, and some of them are with Ukrainian roots) shoot on Ukrainian civilians and soldiers these two months.
The war is out of my consciousness in principle. The war of russia against Ukraine is absurd twice. Surely we had bloody pages in our joint history. In the 20th century these pages were directed from Moscow against Ukraine. And now on the contrary to common “never again!” russians say: “we can repeat!” and do it. Even on May 8th and 9th, russian bandits shelled Ukrainian cities. I do not believe anymore in the possibility of russian repentance.
I am cordially thankful to people and governments all over the world for endorsement and support to Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, May 7, 2022:
1. The war goes on. I am happy to read in the reports of Kharkiv region military administration that there were no victims among civilian people for the past 24hrs, however russian terrorists fired on Kharkiv three times.

2. My native city is proud, in particular, of Gregory Skovoroda, who was a philosopher, as well as a poet, teacher and composer of liturgical music. He lived in eighteenth century. He was one of the founders of science and education in Kharkiv. Today the village where he died is named after him: Skovorodynivka. There was his museum. The museum was of national level. The museum was situated in the estate of the XVIII century, where Skovoroda worked for the last years of his life and near which he was buried. This winter, Ukraine will celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Ukrainian philosopher at the state level.
However, the museum was destroyed by a direct hit by a russian missile on the night of May 7. The russian shell flew under the roof of the building, a fire broke out. The fire engulfed all the premises of the museum. As a result of the shelling, the 35-year-old son of the museum's director was wounded. He remained to guard the premises that night. The man was pulled out from under the rubble, doctors diagnosed him with a leg injury and sent him to a hospital. t.me/suspilnekharkiv/12309
I found these symbolic pictures (t.me/synegubov/3111) - the monuments are whole (not destroyed). They write that most exposition was hidden to prevent damage.

3. There is an International Physicists Tournament (IPT, https://iptnet.info/). It is a contest among students who study Physics. This tournament is one of the most common international intellectual competitions among students, which involves teams from the world's strongest universities, including Harvard University (USA), Ecole Polytechnique (France), University of Queensland (Australia). IPT-2022 will take place in Bucaramanga (Colombia) from May 9 till 14, and will be attended by 18 teams from different countries based on the results of the qualifying round. The Ukrainian team traditionally performs very strongly at the tournament. During 13 years it was a 10-time winner of the tournament, and won the gold medals 4 times, which gained a really high reputation among the international community. The national qualifying tournament in Ukraine took place in February 2022. According to the selection results, the team of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University won the right to represent Ukraine at the international level. All the members of the team were boys this time. However, the war started. And we had to invite six girls from different Universities of Ukraine to arrange the team to go to Colombia. On one hand, we understand that it is impossible to prepare as strong team as the winners of the national selection are during a month. On the other hand, all the teams who took part in the tournament in Ukraine did their best to help the girls to prepare in the best possible manner.
On May 5, the team departed from Ukraine (see the picture by Oleksiy Golubov).

Many thanks to both the population of all over the world and their governments for the powerful endorsement and support to Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Monday, May 2, 2022:
The war goes on. On May 1st, 3 civilians were killed and 8 people were injured by russian missiles in Kharkiv region.

I try to encourage my students to continue studying Physics. They have very different conditions. Some girls moved to European countries and have good internet connection – they can comfortably listen to my lectures, take part in solving problems, and report the home tasks. The others stay in Kharkiv with alarm sirens and bombardments. They have to stop listening to my lectures on and off, and have unstable internet connection… The first year students had their control work on April 30th. The average result is 87%.

I have mentioned earlier that I visited Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in autumn 2021. I worked with Professor Manfred Thumm over our monograph “Surface Flute Waves. Eigenwaves, Excitation and Applications”. These days Springer let us know that the book is placed on the site: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98210-2

Many thanks for the powerful endorsement and support to Ukraine, both from the governments and population of European countries!

Update by Prof. Girka on Wednesday, April 27, 2022:
I did not write every day last time because I am in a safe place now – not in Kharkiv. This does not mean that the war has stopped. No! Every day I read information from the Kharkiv military administration. Every day Kharkiv has several people killed and several dozens wounded by russian bombs and missiles. In particular, russian shelling last night resulted in three persons killed and fifteen persons wounded among civilians in the Kharkiv region. This is very sad for their families and for all of us. My colleagues who did not leave Kharkiv for different reasons confirm the danger of the bombardment.

A week ago russian bandits started a new stage of the war. They took their troops from our capital – Kyiv and threw them to the battles nearby Kharkiv, Donbass and in the South. Despite the higher concentration of their forces to smaller (in the length but not in the significance) parts of the front line, russians have not had any significant success still.

All this demonstrates that the war will not stop in the near future. This temporal circumstance is very terrible for Ukraine. I have already mentioned earlier: russia continues working all over its territory while most Ukrainians either moved from shelling or became military men. In any case, many people or even most people do not work as they did before the war. Any country can proceed in such a manner for a long time. On one hand this needs some solution from the state structures. On the other hand, this explains the necessity of humanitarian assistance from abroad.

One more observation from me is as follows. There is a close connection between the population and army here. I live now in a neighborhood of private buildings (almost in the countryside). Two of five of the nearest neighboring families have their men in the army now. That is why most of the population donates to army what they can; in many cases they donate not to some central foundations but to definite detachments with specific needs (as "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" , "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" and private persons donate to Kharkiv hospital).

Many thanks for your endorsement and support, both from the governments and population of European countries!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, April 23, 2022:
1. When the Soviet atomic project started in the middle of 1940-s, the government understood the necessity to educate specialists in the sphere of Atomic Physics. Kharkiv University was well-known for its scientific school of Mathematics (let's remember Ostrogradsky, Lyapunov, Steklov…) and Physics (Landau, Akhiezer…). That is why Kharkiv was chosen as one of the centers for educating researchers for atomic branch. This choice was fixed in the same order as for Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow Institute of Physics and Engineering… In Kharkiv, the students studied at the School of Physics and Technology. Almost all Professors were chosen among the scientists from Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology (now – National Science Center “Karkiv Institute of Physics and Technology” (KIPT), analogue to Karlsruhe Forschung Centrum). In 1969, KIPT constructed campus for students in the direct vicinity of the Institute. Similarly to Karlsruhe, KIPT is situated to the North of Kharkiv city. That is why a dean of the School of Physics and Technology has to spend some time in a car moving from the campus to the main building in the city center and back. The shortest way goes by the hospital. In 2014, I had to change the route because it was very sad to see wounded soldiers every day whose bandage was coloured by blood – not red or brown paints as it is in movies.
The students of the University have a Christmas tradition. They arrange charitable Christmas ball. Since 2015 they have gathered money for the hospital. As a dean, I took part in the ceremony of passing the money to the hospital. Yaryna Chagovets was the volunteer who helped the chief doctor of the hospital to take care of the wounded soldiers and operated with the money via official charity foundation. Until today, she is my contact person at the hospital and helps coordinate the humanitarian aid we receive.

2. In 2014 russians occupied Crimea, then a part of Donbass. Kharkiv was their next goal. They arranged some congress of those political forces who endorsed former President Yanukovych and russians. However, dozens of thousands of Kharkiv citizens went out into the streets in Kharkiv in February 2014 to say “no” to the plans of separatists. Kharkiv clearly demonstrated its choice to be with Ukraine. After the holodomor in 1930-s in Ukraine, many people came to Kharkiv from all over the Soviet Union, in particular, to work at Kharkiv industrial enterprises. That is why Kharkiv speaks russian very often. This was one of the reasons why they thought in Moscow that it would be easy to separate Kharkiv from Ukraine. Nevertheless, Kharkiv answered “no” in Russian to separatists. One of my classmates, Igor Tolmachov, was among the heads of the protests against the announcement of a separate Kharkiv republic. We studied together at the University for six years. And Yaryna helped Igor as well.

Next year, in February 2015, Kharkiv citizens arranged the demonstration in memory of events of 2014. Three persons, who were prepared and armed in russia, arranged the explosion by the way of the demonstration in 2015. My classmate was killed along with the other three people. We worked with Yaryna to produce the memorial board to Igor Tolmachov at the wall of the University. These and many other cases in my life confirmed that Yaryna is a trustworthy person, who is a dedicated patriot of Kharkiv and Ukraine.

3. Today, the third set of humanitarian goods came to Kharkiv from Bruchsal and Heidelberg. I am VERY thankful to colleagues from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar", private donators and everybody from "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" who have given and are giving the material (mainly clothes, electronic devices and food) as well as money to buy what is needed. You provide the goods on the list that was agreed on in advance. EVERYTHING is just what the hospital needs. These goods also demonstrate the powerful moral endorsement which is also of the highest significance in our struggle for our and your FREEDOM!

4. From the Ukrainian side, the war involves almost all the nation. Many people do their best not because of their job. They do it within their free time, not for any salary, because they understand that the war is about our FUTURE! 

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, April 22, 2022:
In the small Ukrainian city I temporarily live in now, the Ukrainian banner is often lowered because of mourning for passed soldiers, those soldiers who were born here.

Dr. Kseniya Resynkina who was born in Kharkiv and graduated from BSc program in Nuclear Physics at our School of Physics and Technology, V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University writes about the war. “russian bandits fire on my city every day. On Sunday, April 24, it will be two months. Tonight I dreamed of returning to Kharkiv and I couldn't recognize the city. It was terribly realistic. Then I came across the second photo on social networks, and it appeared to be not a dream.” You can see Kseniya in the first picture several years ago in Kharkiv when she visited her parents here. The second picture provides the same place in Kharkiv destroyed by russians.

Russians do fire on Kharkiv every day and every night. Every day Kharkiv state administration reports on the victims. This terrible war continues to take the lives of Ukrainians, our bravest, heroically loyal boys and girls... Yesterday the University received bitter news. Volunteer Yevhen PROSKURIN, a graduate of the Department of Applied Linguistics at Karazin University, died tragically from an enemy fragment. The School of Philology remembers Eugene as a bright, cheerful, smiling young man who was supposed to celebrate his 26th birthday yesterday. But a russian deadly machine ended a young flourishing life.

This Sunday parishioners of Orthodox Church will celebrate Easter in Ukraine. Since russians fire on churches as well as any other buildings, the state administrations ask people not to visit the churches to exclude the possibility for russian bandits to take more Ukrainian lives.

Update by Prof. Girka on Monday, April 18, 2022:
I am very glad that I have no sad news about any death of my colleagues these days.

Yesterday, Professor Beresnev, who works at my School, went to buy some medicines at a pharmacy. Unexpectedly, a russian bomb exploded in about one hundred meters. He left alive. He only got a light contusion. We are getting used to such news without paying much attention to them. Because every day russian bandits send dozens of bombs and missiles to our city. Every day several people in Kharkiv are killed by these missiles, with no mention about destruction.

A few days ago, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to the Commander of the 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Operational Command "North" of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, colonel Dmytro Kashchenko. “The award was given for the personal example of heroism that inspires comrades, for extremely effective combat operations and concrete and very important results for maintaining the positions of our army and expelling the occupiers.” These are words from the evening address by the President on April 15. On the picture (I got it from the University site: https://karazin.ua/news/komandyr-58-i-okremoi-motopikhotnoi-bryhady-operatyvnoho-kom/), one can see the colonel several months ago. The President of the University (the woman at the left) awarded him as the best graduate of the year from Karazin Institute of Public Administration (the Department of our University which provides second higher education for heading persons).

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, April 15, 2022:
Yesterday, local social networks brought the video of the building of the School of Physics and Technology, V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University, where I studied and worked since 1979 till now. It is hard to imagine that it can be restored after russian bombardments. Most probably, the new building should be designed and built after the victory.

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, April 12, 2022:
Yesterday, local social networks brought the pictures of my native secondary school. I studied there for 10 years. I met my friends there. My dear teachers taught me… It also suffered from russian bandits. No victims, since the school does not work under war time. Nevertheless, I do not forgive those who shot and those who ordered the shooting at the school.

Update by Prof. Girka on Monday, April 11, 2022 (part II):
Today, a second set of humanitarian goods (including a microwave) came to Kharkiv, see pictures attached. I am VERY thankful to colleagues from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" as well as private donors. As mentioned before, the list of goods was agreed on in advance. That is why everything is just what the hospital needs. Alongside, this is a powerful moral endorsement – we see your desire to stay with us in this struggle!

Update by Prof. Girka on Monday, April 11, 2022 (part I):
Today is the 47th day of the war. russian bandits continue to commit a crime against Ukraine, against the mankind! They continue killing Ukrainians.
1. Yesterday, the dean of the School of Chemistry at V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University let us know that the senior lecturer of his School Oleksandr Korsun was killed on April 7, 2022. The tragedy happened in the result of shelling in Kharkiv. His wife and two minor children left without a husband and father.
2. Please Help! Please Participate in Gold Medal Auction!
The teacher of our University Maryna Lytovchenko is the champion of Paralympics. She announces the Auction to help the University:
“Sports is my life! Fighting for Victory is my life! Although I compete as an individual, I have achieved victory thanks to those supporting me, especially the Karazin University in Kharkiv. Now it’s my turn to support the University, as Ukraine fights for its freedom - the ultimate Fight for Victory!
Karazin University is in the heart of Khariv’s downtown. Many of its buildings have been destroyed, and students and teachers need daily help.
I decided to sell the most valuable of my sport awards - the Paralympic Gold Medal from Tokyo 2020, so that the University could live and work fully. This medal is particularly meaningful, since I beat two athletes from the Russian Olympic Committee 3-0 in the semifinals and finals of the Paralympics in Tokyo!
Today, my country is showing an indomitable spirit and a will for much-needed victory. Every day my city Kharkiv and my University hold on heroically. Let's help them survive together!
I am selling my Gold Medal in an auction format. The starting bid is 10 000 USD. Please comment under this post or message me directly to participate in this auction.
If you are unable to participate in the auction, but would like to support me and the Karazin University, please make a transfer to the account of the University Alumni Association (link in the first comment). I will personally send an autographed postcard to anyone who makes a donation over 50 USD.”
We ask NATO to shelter the sky over Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, April 9, 2022:
Today is the 45th day of the war. russian bandits continue to commit crimes against Ukraine, against mankind!

1. Yesterday, the occupiers hit the Kramatorsk railway station with a missile Point-U. Thousands of peaceful Ukrainians were waiting to be evacuated there… About 30 people were killed; about 100 people were injured to varying degrees. russian non-humans do not abandon their methods. Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically killing the civilian population. This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop. See the following links:
Link 1
Link 2
BBC
Deutsche Welle
Link 3
Link 4

2. Yesterday, colleagues sent the video (“my street”) to me. It demonstrates the destruction made by russian bandits to the civilian buildings at the street where I lived last thirty years. This is to explain why I had to leave my apartments. I cannot see just my windows in the video. Then I hope my apartments can still be safe.

We ask to shelter the sky over Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Wednesday, April 6, 2022:
russian bandits were unsuccessful near Kyiv. Now they left the plan to occupy it. However Kharkiv is under continuous bombardment. That is why the hospital works hard. And we expect that the tension (load) will increase there.

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 (part II):
In 2018 and 2021, I visited Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to work with German colleagues, specifically, with Professor Manfred Thumm. This was possible due to DAAD fellowships. Both stays were fruitful. Two monographs were submitted to Springer Publishing House. As a guest professor, I also joined "Schule hautnah - scholars at school", a program organized by the DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar in Heidelberg, and visited Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal.

Several days ago humanitarian goods came to Kharkiv (my native city, which resists to russian aggression at the North-East of Ukraine), see pictures attached. I am VERY thankful for people from "DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar" and "Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal" as well as private donors who have given and are giving material (clothes and food) and also money to buy what is needed. The list of goods was agreed on in advance. That is why everything is just what we need. This is neither for me nor for my relatives, nor neighbors. This is for Kharkiv hospital. Your support is VERY significant in many respects. First, I have mentioned about: the goods are just what the hospital needs. Second, we see real support from international community to our people.

Large Russia sends its bandits to kill Ukrainians and destroy Ukraine while its industry works for the war. In Ukraine, millions of people had to run from “Russian liberation” to other cities or abroad. Many enterprises are situated in the cities which are under russian bombardment and cannot function. Almost all the country struggles. A small part of us can work under the conditions of the war. This is one reason more why the humanitarian goods are very significant.

Many-many thanks!!! Ukrainians boys and girls in our Army defend our motherland in the war started by russia. And they defend democracy all over the world!

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 (part I):
Ethnic cleansing: the article "What Russia should do with Ukraine" was published on russian state website. The material was published on the state media of the russian rederation RIA Novosti (russian information agency “News”) on April 3, 2022. It became inaccessible almost immediately, but can still be viewed through online archives. The article is not only about so-called "denazification", but also about "de-Ukrainization", which actually means persecution or murder of people on ethnic grounds.

It goes on to say that "denazification is a set of measures against the nationalized mass of the population, which technically cannot be subjected to direct punishment as war criminals." The author of the article in the state edition calls a significant part of the people of Ukraine "guilty" of Nazism, saying that they are "passive Nazis, accomplices." "The just punishment of this part of the population is possible only as bearing the inevitable burden of a just war," the author writes. The author directly suggests repressions for "re-education" and lists their options.

It is cynical that the author talks about alleged Nazism in Ukraine. When all the world sees the opposite facts: russia is mass exterminating Ukrainians by nationality. And what is it called? The answer is obvious at once: the genocide of the Ukrainian people by russia.

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, April 2, 2022:
1. War is awful. As we can see from the reaction of our colleagues and relatives in Russia, they do not believe us – they are used to believe their TV sets. They consider this war as a conflict inside Ukraine between some fictional groups, mostly between east and west of Ukraine which are divided by Dnipro river. These days I live in the residence of the father of my colleague just in the other part of Ukraine as compared with that where I was born and worked. They accept us as their relatives and do not pay attention to the problems (large or small) which we certainly cause to them by our presence. All the neighbors and people in a market or hairdresser’s, a shop or elsewhere greet us and are very positive. I can remember my native Kharkiv. There is a mix of nations, a mix of churches. Kharkiv was the largest city of Ukraine in respect to the number of foreign students. We never distinguished people in respect to nations. Qualification was the main value among physicists.

This is not fantasy... This is Kharkiv, now...

2. I was born in the Soviet Union. When I was a boy, I was educated in the spirit of loyalty to my motherland and Communist Party. After 1985, more information became available. Now we see that the Soviet Union was in charge of many wars, including WWII. Russia continues this sad list by bombing its part – Chechnya, by invasion to Georgia, Moldova, Syria, Ukraine.

However, russian minister of foreign affairs says that russia never fought against anybody and does not fight against Ukraine. russians can believe this lie. But I saw russian bandits in my native city with my own eyes. They shot on me and my family with rifles, guns, tanks, missiles… They destroyed civilian buildings, hospitals, schools, buildings of my University, churches… They directly killed civilian people who tried to leave occupied cities and villages. And they continue saying that they liberate us. russia is the only one from whom we want to be liberated. This is opinion of me and my colleagues: Ukrainians, Russians, Belorussians, Jewishs, Moldavians, Tatarians, Germans… People of Ukraine are a nation of people who value freedom ahead of all rather than a nation in respect of blood. And this is proved by multinational personnel of our University as well as our Army.

3. Today we are very thankful to all the people all over the world who endorse us and support us with humanitarian goods, as well as with weapons for our soldiers. This is very significant not to feel alone. We surely want from NATO to shelter our sky. But even without this, our boys and girls resist russian army who claim itself as the second most powerful army in the world. It appears that their army is large rather than great.

4. russian bandits occupied two of our nuclear power stations. This causes danger to the whole world, at least – to whole Europe. Under these conditions, I call for all the Governments, Universities and scientific centers to arrange a complete boycott of all the scientific institutions of russia. This is especially significant since presidents of russian Universities including Moscow (!) University signed the declaration with endorsement to the russian war against Ukraine.

I am sure that these days, our soldiers fight and die to protect the world from russian state terrorism. I hope the world will quickly find a way to stop the war and to guarantee that it will never start again.

Update by Prof. Girka on Thursday, March 31, 2022:
Sometimes a video is much more impressive than pictures…

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, March 29, 2022:
Russians continue killing Ukrainians, in particular, in my native Kharkiv.

Today we had our traditional zoom-meeting of the University President  with deans. It started with a silent minute in memory of our student  Vadym Pavlenko (see selfie), a third-year student, who was killed by russian bandits. On March 7, 2022, Vadym Pavlenko, a third-year student of the School of Ecology, tragically died together with his father. This happened during an attempt to evacuate from the city of Izyum, Kharkiv region. Izyum is entirely encircled by the bandits and its citizens have no water, food, electricity, communication... It is very unfortunate when, due to hostilities, we lose the hope of our people - the youth.

Pray for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, March 26, 2022:
Russians continue killing Ukrainians, in particular, in my native Kharkiv. Yesterday morning, russians fired by artillery and Grads on the city hospital in the Osnovyansky district of Kharkiv, where humanitarian aid was being distributed. 7 people were injured, 4 of them died. This is another war crime of the russian occupiers!

Memorial to the victims of soviet totalitarism has also suffered from russian fire. It is located about 1 km from my office at
School of Physics and Technology, V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University (Kharkiv, Ukraine). It's not a Memorial only, it's a cemetery of thousands of Polish officers and soldiers who were killed by soviet union at the beginning of WWII.

Several days ago, russian missiles destroyed the building of the School of Economics of Kharkiv University.
A photographer made the pictures, how does it look from inside.

However, Kharkiv citizens continue living and winning. In the video a student of the secondary school
plays music by Platon Maiboroda to the “Song about a towel” at the background of a Kharkiv street today.

Pray for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, March 25, 2022:
Yesterday, a month passed since the russian war against my Ukraine started.

Russians continue killing Ukrainians, in particular, in my native Kharkiv.

Yesterday, russians fired with long-range weapons at the Nova Poshta (New Post-office) checkpoint, near which Kharkiv residents were receiving humanitarian aid.

“According to preliminary data, 6 civilians were killed.
And another 15 were injured – they were hospitalized.
The number of victims is being determined.“ https://t.me/synegubov

This is another war crime of the russian occupiers!
Pray for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support!

Update by Prof. Girka on Tuesday, March 22, 2022:
Today is the 27th day of the russian war against my Ukraine. Russians continue killing Ukrainians.
Yesterday, Boris Romanchenko, a 96-year-old prisoner of several Nazi concentration camps, died after a shell hit a multi-storey residential building in Kharkiv. This was announced by the administration of the Buchenwald memorial complex with reference to his granddaughter:

"Boris Romanchenko died on March 18. In 1942, Romanchenko ended up in the Buchenwald concentration camp, and in the next three years he went through the Peenemünde, Dora-Mittelbau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Romanchenko advocated for people to remember Nazi crimes and was vice president of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee."

Pray for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support!

Update by Prof. Girka on Monday, March 21, 2022:
Today is the 26th day of the russian war against Ukraine.

russians continue killing my colleagues.

Yesterday, I was informed about the death of one more of our Professors.

„Defending his native Kharkiv from the invasion of the
russian occupation troops, Olexander Bezugly, an
associate professor of the Department of Regional
Administration and Local Self-Government, died heroically.
It is sad. It is a painful loss. He was a true man, young and full of strength and energy, a model of teaching, an active public figure, one of the organizers of the territorial defense of Kharkiv region; reliable, useless friend and companion.
Glory to the Hero! Bright and eternal memory to the colleague!“
https://karazin.ua/news/zahynuv-zakhyshchaiuchy-ukrainu-dotsent-kafedry-rehionalno/

Pray for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support!

Update by Prof. Girka on Sunday, March 20, 2022:
Today is the 25th day of the russian war against my Ukraine. Russians continue destroying objects of education.
Yesterday, Professor of the Medical School Igor Belozorov sent a picture to me. On the one hand, the building is that of the University hospital - one more hospital destroyed by russians! On the other hand, this hospital is especially important for me since thirty years of my life beginning with my birth; it was the hospital where I applied if it was necessary. The building is situated twenty meters from the house I lived in those thirty years.

Pray for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support, Igor Girka

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, March 19, 2022:
Today is the 24th day of the russian war against Ukraine. Russians continue destroying objects of education.
Yesterday, two more missiles fitted the building of my School: one – to the entrance, the other – to the room for learning foreign languages (see two pictures attached). On March 14, Russians fired on the dormitory of our School (see pictures by Yaroslav Matlak - he was born in Donbass and is the only one who does not want to leave the dormitory).

Today, my colleagues from the School of Public Administration at our University let me know that the building of their School also suffered from a russian missile. My cousin who lives in the other part of the city heard the sound of this explosion.

Since my student years I have a friend, who studied at the School of Chemistry. He was born in Merefa – a small city near Kharkiv. Yesterday, russian bandits fired at the secondary school where my friend studied at. The house of his father is 800 meters from the school. In Merefa, during the shelling from the russian federation, 21 people were killed, 25 were injured, 10 of them were in serious condition - according to the prosecutor's office of the Kharkiv region. My friend Oleg Yaroshenko said by phone: “There were no military or any chemical or biological laboratories in this school. The school was built before the start of World War II - the German fascists left it intact - they had their headquarters there. After the offensive of the Soviet troops, the school was also saved intact. What is symbolic: the school is located on the street named after the 5th of September - the day the city was liberated from the German occupiers. I was taught in Russian there. And now: with one rocket strike, the school was destroyed, it will need to be rebuilt. So-called `russian world´ kills the centers of Russian culture in the territories that speak mostly Russian and often consider Russian as their native language, and Ukrainian as their second native language...”

Last but not least, these links (Link 1, link 2, link 3) are all about the same:
Ukrainian militaries shot down a russian military helicopter. One can see the inscription by white paint "to Berlin" on its fuselage. This is a black joke, surely. On the other hand, I know of Russians taking part in May 9th demonstrations in Germany where they proclaimed:  “We can repeat!”...

Hope for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support!

Update by Prof. Girka on Thursday, March 17, 2022:
I am in a safe place. There are no explosions here. Every morning I listen to our Kharkiv governor and the President about the results of the previous day. Ukrainian army resists by Kharkiv. I am glad that the European Physical Society joined the sanctions against the aggressor. Colleagues all over the world write with proposals to accept our students and researchers.

What affect does the war have on me psychologically? It is better seen from outside. Since I am the head of the family and the faculty, I have to keep myself in my hands and demonstrate certainty. This is especially significant for those who remain in Kharkiv. They continue suffering from regular bombardments. How am I holding up? I have a lot of work to do with my colleagues and students.

And how has the war affected the relationship with Russians within Ukraine? We never distinguished who is Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish… We in our community of physicists paid attention to who is a better specialist rather than nationality. All my colleagues endorse our soldiers and President in resistance to the enemy. We do not want to be slaves; we got used to be free, to live in democratic society. This is what we call a Ukrainian to distinguish from many russians who need a tsar to bow behind and to give him the right to make decisions instead of people.

Continuing to pray for our soldiers and international support which we directly see and which is indeed very important!

SLAVA UKRAINI! – Glory to heroes who defend their Motherland and freedom for all over the world!

Update by Prof. Girka on Monday, March 14, 2022:
Today is the nineteenth day of the russian war against my Ukraine. Ukrainian soldiers bravely oppose to one of the largest armies in the world. We stay because we defend our people at our land. Since russian militaries can do nothing on the land, they get use of their prevailing in air: russian “officers” bomb and send the missiles to our houses, hospitals, churches, universities. Probably, they try to intimidate Ukrainians in this way. But this causes more resistance only! However, we ask NATO once more to shelter our sky from russian bandits to save our people, then our soldiers will defend us on the land.

My School of Physics and Technology, V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University, is situated by Kharkiv in the settlement called as Pyatikhatki since Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology is situated there. This is very similar to Karlsruhe Institute of Technology with its Campus Nord (former scientific center).

Despite Pyatikhatki is mostly the settlement of physicists and students, there is an orthodox church therein. russians often explain their war against Ukraine by their attempts to defend orthodox faith. This explanation is false as all the others. I know from my friends who live in Pyatikhatki that the building of the church there suffered from russian bombardment. And the picture illustrates this.

Hope for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support!

Update by Prof. Girka on Sunday, March 13, 2022:
Today is the eighteenth day of the war. Yesterday I started at least to gather my students (to whom I give lectures and with whom I solve problems). Today they are all over Ukraine and even abroad. That is why I gather them on the Internet. We start to carry out some kind of on-line education. When anybody among them can – I answer their questions, check homeworks up... Today morning, my student who is now in Poland sent his homework and we agreed to discuss it in the evening after he will be back from the meeting in endorsement of Ukraine.

Hope for the victory, Ukrainian soldiers and international support!

P.S. My relatives (hosts) have a small garden. I was happy these days in breaks to prune bushes and trees. What happiness it is to live in a place without explosions!

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, March 11, 2022:
Today is the sixteenth day of the war. I have already reported on the strafing of the building of the School of Physics and Technology, V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University by russian troops. In particular, the laboratory of fluorescence spectroscopy. For these days nobody could come inside because the lock melted. However, some water flew from the room and it was necessary to stop this. Yesterday, I asked Dr. Valentine Bobkov to apply special tools to open the door. One can see destruction in the picture.

Head of the Department of materials for reactor design and physical technologies Professor Serhiy Lytovchenko spent these days in a shelter together with his daughter and neighbours. His daughter Vira is a violinist. One day she put her dress for concerts on and played the melody of the song “What a Moonlit Night“ for the neighbours in the shelter. She played to drown out the sounds of explosions for people with whom she has spent 9 days there.

Yesterday, I looked through the pictures of well-known Kharkiv photographer Leonid Logvynenko. My attention was drawn to the picture of the orthodox Christian church suffered from the russian cannonade.

Ukrainians saw much from russian army: strafing of secondary schools and Universities, houses and churches... However, on March 9, we (and I hope, all the mankind except of russian militaries) were saddened by russian troops who carried out a devastating air strike on the orphanage and maternity hospital in Mariupol. Children were under the rubble. 

With the hope for Ukrainian soldiers and international support!

Update by Prof. Girka on Thursday, March 10, 2022:
Yesterday, Dr. Valentine Bobkov visited his lab for studying the interaction of charged particle beams with solid surface in the building (picture 3) of the School of Physics and Technology, V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University. Formerly, flowers greeted everybody who came into the building. Now it is cold, nobody can water the flowers (picture 2). The room for lectures (named after the first dean of the school Academician Illya Zalyubovsky) also suffered from the bombardment (picture 4). Because of permanent shelling the missile (between the building of the school and the dormitory) is not removed still (picture 1).

With the hope for Ukrainian soldiers and international support! 

Update by Prof. Girka on Wednesday, March 9, 2022:
It is not a pleasure to write about awful things. I feel that I get used to seeing grief around, which is abnormal for a human!

Please check out this video about our university.

Update by Prof. Girka on Sunday, March 6, 2022:
Today is the eleventh day of the war. Yesterday, it was the first day when I did not hear any explosion since I left Kharkiv. This was happiness! However, today morning, my colleague, the dean of the School of Geology and Geography informed me about the third victim in the University team. Young man, our student, went to defend Ukraine and was killed by the enemy. RIP!

We have a laboratory for physical demonstrations in the University. Some devices were purchased by Karazin in Europe for the lab in 1804. This year it suffered from the enemy. Glass in the windows was destroyed several days ago. See pictures attached.

We ask to shelter the airspace over Ukraine!

Update by Prof. Girka on Saturday, March 5, 2022:
Today is the tenth day of the war. Eight days I sat in my apartments and could see the fight in direct view from my windows. And even the sounds of the explosions and the fight did not force me to move away. However, after a missile hit the house in the direct neighborhood of my house in my eyes, I decided to move away from Kharkiv.

Please, pay attention to two issues since my previous report.

First. My relatives spent this week in underground which is now transferred into shelter. What is important! Mayor services provide for free: water, food, hygienic things… for everybody, milk, special food, diapers… for children. Volunteers assist for elder people. They provide three-time food for free. On the other hand, sitting under ground for a long time destroys psychological health.

Second. TODAY, sport facilities of Kharkiv University were destroyed.

We ask to shelter the airspace over Ukraine!

P.S. Since I am not in Kharkiv more, most likely, this is my last report.

Update by Prof. Girka on Friday, March 4, 2022:
Today is the ninth day of the war. Bombardments continue!
What happened yesterday.

First. The director of the University Library sent pictures from the halls suffered from bombardments. Rare ancient literature is stored there.

Second. A missile hit the house where my colleague lives. Then today, he went to his relatives.

Third. A missile hit the other house in the direct neighborhood of my house.

"We ask to shelter the airspace over Ukraine!"

Update by Prof. Girka on Thursday, March 3, 2022:
Today is the eighth day of the war. Bombardments continue! In the breaks I finished translating the first module of the educational materials for teaching nuclear fusion in secondary schools into Ukrainian.

What happened yesterday.

First. I have already reported on the explosion in the other separate building of the University. Russian bomb hit in the building of School of Economics of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. According to preliminary information, three people were killed. Then the total number of victims within the University team is five. See here.

And there are still more than 3,000 foreign students who hide in basements and beg/pray for a green corridor and a special evacuation train.

Second. The second secondary school suffered from bombing yesterday. I have not anybody from my staff there to take a picture. That is why I provide links to local media. Source 1, 2 and 3.

Third. We studied at the University with Russian-speaking German Valentine Shtrasser. He made some pictures for me from around the place where he lives in Kharkiv.

Please also note the picture of Boris Shtrasser, Valentine´s brother. He graduated from the School of Economics at our University. He is also a Russian- speaking German and lives in Kharkiv. Now he takes part in territorial self-defense to defend Kharkiv from Russians who declare that they defend Russian-speaking population in Ukraine...

"We ask to shelter the airspace over Ukraine!"

Update by Prof. Girka on Wednesday, March 2, 2022:
Today is the seventh day of the war. Bombardments continue. In the breaks I continue translating the educational materials for teaching nuclear fusion in secondary schools into Ukrainian. They were initially prepared by Sander Korteweg from Fusenet in English. Most of teachers and students speak English, nevertheless I do the translation.
We have a curfew. Most of the colleagues spent all the day and night in bombproof shelters.
What happened yesterday:

First. I have already reported on the explosion in the main square of the city – Svobody sq. (square of Freedom). Two main buildings of the University are situated there. Glass in windows of the University was broken by the explosion wave. One can see destruction in the building of the Faculty of Economics of Kharkiv University after russian bombardment in this video. Awful!

Second. The University has the second victim in its team (Update on March 3: The link “univer.kharkov.us” does not function right now since the server was placed in the building on the Svobody sq. which was partially destroyed in the result of bombardment.).This time it is a Professor (head of the Department of economy theory and public finances) Oleg Amosov. He died from injuries received one day before during the shelling by the russian occupiers of a peaceful residential area in Kharkiv.

Third. Yesterday evening, russian military aircrafts flew several times over my house. It was not very pleasant to hear and see them, despite they bombed somewhere in other place of the city and some of them were shot down as reported our administration and confirm my alumnus who lives nearby the place where the fragments landed.

Fourth. Two days ago, I demonstrated the photos. One of them was with the door of a car. My colleagues suggested that the enemy used cluster bombs with 5-6 mm metal balls banned by an international convention. Yesterday, I asked one of them (Ivan Guk) to make detailed pictures. He did and I attach some of them.

We pray for forthcoming peace. We ask for international support.

For our and your FREEDOM! Igor Girka

Update durch Prof. Girka am Dienstag, 1.3.2022:
Today is the sixth day of the war. However, it is impossible to get used to the sounds of explosions outdoors.
Four notes about yesterday.

First. From the beginning, the enemy fired at some buildings inside the city which had some relation to militaries, like airport, military university… Yesterday they fired at housing developments. I easily recognize the place in the video since we often walk there with my wife. You can find other videos on the internet as well.

Second. Yesterday, my University grieved about the first student who was killed during these days. He went to defend his Motherland in the first days. Excuse me: the information is now in Ukrainian only.

Third. This is about Sunday, February 27. Russian diversion group came to the city, occupied the building of the secondary school. They were rendered harmless, but the building was destroyed. You can visit the internet and see the building before and after the fight.

Fourth. Yesterday, I demonstrated the photos. One of them was with the door of a car. The hole in the glass is not from a bullet. No automatic rifles were used that time there. It was identified by my colleagues-physicists as that from a metal wall. It looks like the enemy used cluster bombs with 5-6 mm metal balls banned by an international convention.

Today morning we had an air strike on the regional state administration in Kharkiv. Two buildings of the University in the central square were damaged. We came under artillery fire. We do not know exactly the destruction since our guards (several men who work as watchmen) sit in the basement - they cannot go out to observe. Bombing is ongoing.

Please also check out these videos about Kharkiv secondary school:
Video 1[urlnt=ttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Gg0Nw2FOc] 
[/urlnt]Video 2
Video 3

We pray for forthcoming peace. We ask for international support. For our and your FREEDOM! We do not want to die!

Update durch Prof. Girka am Montag, 28.2.2022:
The internet was disconnected in the morning...
Today morning I met the fifth day of the war. All day long yesterday and all night with short breaks I heard sounds of explosions of different power. Yesterday, the main direction was not 2 km but 15 km from me. There is the settlement where my School of Physics and Technology is situated, as well as Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology. Many professors from the University and researchers from the Institute live there. The settlement is to the north of the city by the road Kharkiv-Belgorod (Ukraine-russia). The enemy’s way to the Kharkiv center lies through the settlement. Yesterday, russian missiles hit several times into the civilian targets in the settlement. In the pictures, one can see, in particular, a splinter in the wall of the flat and on the table (after drawing out of the wall). In the other picture, a mine crater is photographed two meters from the apparatus of the children's playground. In another picture you see a mine crater on the land and a car without the door. Bad quality is because of the evening time.

Ukrainians ask NATO members to:
✅ close the airspace over Ukraine;
✅ Introduce NATO peacekeeping troops in Ukraine;
✅Provide military assistance to Kyiv.

With my thanks and hope for forthcoming peace. For our and your FREEDOM! We do not want to die!"

Update durch Prof. Girka am Sonntag, 27.2.2022:
"I live in the suburbs. My multi storage house is the last. In my windows, I can see the beltline and further - countryside. All day yesterday and in the late night russian tanks tried to break Ukrainian soldiers. But our boys did not let them come in. I do not look into the windows during the fights. I can only see bonfires in the breaks. Russian tanks and vehicles flame. The enemy destroyed lines of power supply and internet cables yesterday. After the curfew, the mayor services renewed the supply and later – internet connection.
My driver lives a couple of kilometers from me closer to the city center. We talked with him in the morning today. He says a mine crater appeared in front of his house during the night bombardment - 10 meters behind the crater one even sees the groundwork (below it is brown-red and above it is white) of the hospital!!! There are no military targets in that vicinity: civilian buildings, a school and kindergarten – no more!
We know about significant international support to our Army. We are VERY THANKFUL to all the nations who support us. There is no reason for the soldiers to die in this war. Ukrainian militaries stay for our democratic motherland and its freedom, while russian soldiers in Ukraine bring indelible disgrace to moscow. With my thanks and hope for forthcoming peace. For our and your FREEDOM!"

Update durch Prof. Girka am Samstag, 26.2.2022:
"Today I was awakened by the sounds of explosions at 06-00. Fight was somewhere in the northeast from my house. Yesterday the fight was so close to my home that another house in my street got several missiles, luckily in a blank wall and with some angle, which resulted in no victims. Our mayor invited citizens to give their blood at a special hospital two days ago. Yesterday the hospital was bombarded by russian military planes. Some civilian buildings were destroyed in the city in the course of bombarding the buildings of the military academy.There are some students in our dormitory. They cannot go home since they live either on the territory which is temporarily occupied or where fights take place just now. After the missile attack on the dormitory (the missile landed dozens of meters from the dormitory) they spend most time in the cellar of the nearest hospital. They were very scared by the missile and a fight which took place two hundred meters from the dormitory and the hospital they hid at that time."

Auszüge aus Prof. Girkas Hilferuf am Freitag, 25.2.2022 im englischen Original: 
"Russia spends a lot of money to lie in Europe via papers and RT. I say what I see with my own eyes. An hour ago a missile hit a civilian house in my street. Luckily it was a blank wall and no victims. We need international support."
"We stay here for our and your FREEDOM. Russians say that they destroy military infrastructure only. First, this is not true. Second, even if it is true, why does one country destroy anything in another country? We need powerful international support!"
"I am in Kharkiv. I can see the combat from my window. Help us!"
"Yesterday in the late evening, the fight happened directly in the neighborhood of the building of my faculty of Physics and Technology, V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. A Russian military unit was annihilated. However, explosions destroyed the doors and windows of the buildings. Several rooms were burnt to ashes. Nobody was inside, then no victims. I ask once more for international support. This is not a demonstration of force – this is the real war. University (!) building is almost destroyed."

Heidelberg/Charkow (hb). Ein dringender Hilferuf aus dem ukrainischen Kriegsgebiet hat den Freundeskreis des Deutschen Akademischen Austauschdienstes (DAAD) in Heidelberg und das Heisenberg-Gymnasium Bruchsal erreicht. Prof. Dr. Igor Girka, Dekan der Hochschule für Physik und Technologie an der Nationalen W.-N.-Karasin-Universität Charkow sowie Mitglied der ukrainischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, schildert darin in dramatischen Worten seine Erlebnisse am ersten Abend des Putinschen Angriffskriegs und fleht die (akademische) Welt um Hilfe an. Als Professor für Angewandte Physik und Plasmaphysik war er 2018 Gastwissenschaftler am Karlsruhe Institute of Technology und nahm unter anderem am Programm „Schule hautnah - scholars at school“ des DAAD-Freundeskreises Rhein-Neckar (Heidelberg) teil.
„Ich kann die Kämpfe von meinem Fenster aus sehen“, berichtet der DAAD-Alumnus von den erbitterten Auseinandersetzungen direkt neben seiner Fakultät. „Helft uns!“ Explosionen hätten die Türen und Fenster des Universitätsgebäudes zerstört, mehrere Räume seien „zu Asche verbrannt“. Als Beleg schickt er per E-Mail ein Bild der Fassade sowie eines der Gebäuderückseite, das eine Rakete zeigt. „Sie ist zehn Meter von unserer hinteren Institutswand eingeschlagen!“ Beide Aufnahmen stammen von einem Institutsmitarbeiter.
Man bräuchte dringend internationale Unterstützung, so der 59-Jährige. „Das ist keine Demonstration der Stärke – das ist ein wahrhaftiger Krieg!“ Dass Russland nur militärische Infrastruktur zerstören wolle, sei unwahr. „Und selbst wenn: Warum verursacht ein Land einfach so solche Zerstörungen in einem anderen Land?“
Nichtsdestotrotz zeige man großen Durchhaltewillen. „Wir bleiben hier für unsere und eure FREIHEIT!“, betont Girka, mit der Wahl der Großbuchstaben eindrucksvoll hervorhebend, was für die Ukraine gut 30 Jahre nach ihrer Unabhängigkeit auf dem Spiel steht. Und nicht nur für die Ukraine. Seinen Appell wiederholt er deshalb bewusst:

"Wir brauchen internationale Unterstützung - wirksame internationale Unterstützung!"

N.B.:

1.) This aid campaign supports a hospital in Charkiv. As of October 18, 2022, more than 10 000 euros have been donated, more than 120 cardboard boxes - about two tons of supplies - sent and 500 euros transferred directly to Ukraine to buy material that is still available there; for further information, please contact fk-rhein-neckar(at)daad-alumni.de.

2.) Über den Hilferuf aus Charkiw berichtete auch der Mannheimer Morgen. Eine Möglichkeit, Solidarität mit der Ukraine zu zeigen, sind die Kundgebungen, die derzeit in sehr vielen deutschen Städten stattfinden. Zu den Anti-Kriegs-Protesten in Heidelberg am 24.2.2022 (Bismarckplatz, siehe SWR, Rhein-Neckar Fernsehen und HEIDELBERG24) und 2.3.2022 (Universitätsplatz, siehe Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung) rief auch der DAAD-Freundeskreis Rhein-Neckar auf, der zudem vor Ort Flagge zeigte, inklusive Plakataktion an beiden Tagen sowie Redebeitrag am 2. März. Er sammelt zudem Solidaritätsbekundungen für die Ukraine aus aller Welt.

THANKS TO THE PHOTOGRAPHERS IN/FROM UKRAINE: Olga Kamneva, Dementiy Matviyenko, Aleksandr Yevlakhov, Tatyana Gonchar, Maxim Klymenchuk, Vlad Smirnov, Ivan Guk, Valentine Shtrasser, Boris Shtrasser, Iryba Zhuravlyova, Oleksandr Yevlakhov, Vyacheslav Sklyar, Valentine Bobkov, Leonid Logvynenko, Yaroslav Matlak, Mykyta Kosishchev, Igor Belozorov, Andrii Sotnikov, Victoria Yakymenko, Vyacheslav Yarmak; V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University; Maryna Lytovchenko, Sergey Sych, Oleksiy Golubov, Oleksander Shchus, Yuriy Sapronov, Kseniya Minakova; Oleksiy Girka, Oleksandr Brynza, Vitaliy Tretyakov, Artem Manzyuk, Serhiy Utevskiy,  Yeugen Bogdanovych, Victoriya Bakirova, Sergey Utevsky, Volodymyr Dariy, Olena Rofe-Beketova, Volodymyr Yefymenko, Serhiy Zhadan, Yevhen Zakharchenko, Yaryna Chagovets, Illya Glushko, Viktoriya Popenko, Arsen Dzodzayev, Dr. Volodymyr Rudychev, Iryna Rakytska, Kateryna Gavrylyak, Nataliia Popova, Screenshot BBC, Serhiy Lytovchenko, Olga Vovk, Victoria Yakymenko, Serhii Lobas, Artur Omarov, Lina Tymarska, Andriy Sotnikov; N.B.: All pictures collected and shared by Prof. Girka.