Cincinnati and Kharkiv have been sister cities since Sept. 11, 1989, when Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken and Konstantin Khirnyi, leader of the Kharkiv delegation, signed documents uniting the two cities, according to the Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Program, a non-profit, volunteer driven program.
Now, Kharkiv, the second-largest city in the country, has been the focus of much of the early fighting as Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
It is the closest Ukrainian city to the Russian border, and on both Thursday and Friday, loud explosions could be heard on the outskirts of town with reports of some of the fiercest fighting across the country. Kharkiv is home to several industrial factories, including facilities that build tanks and aircraft, and there is an airbase just outside of the city. It is also home to a university.
Kharkiv is important to Russia in the narrative the Kremlin is pushing that Ukraine belongs to them as part of the “Russian empire”. The New York Times reports that when protesters toppled Ukraine’s pro-Russian president in 2014 in the capitol city of Kyiv, Russia shifted its focus to rally opposition to Ukraine’s independence to Kharkiv. The ousted president fled to Kharkiv where he tried to orchestrate a resistance effort, which quickly fizzled.
Kharkiv is a melting pot of different cultures and ethnic groups, including a large Jewish population that played an important role in shaping the country’s independence. It served as the first capital of the “Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,” a Russian-led opposition to independence on Ukraine, which crushed the country’s first attempt at independence in 1918 after World War I, according to the NY Times.
Ukraine only gained full independence in 1991, the same year the Soviet Union dissolved.
Now, President Vladimir Putin seeks to “demilitarize” the country amid its bid to join NATO, according to the Associated Press.
Smoke could be seen rising at the Chuhuiv Airbase outside of Kharkiv on Thursday as a result of some of the Russian attacks, which damaged a fuel storage depot and other airport infrastructure, according to the Military Times.
A report from Foreign Policy said a boy was among the dead when shelling struck an apartment building in Kharkiv Thursday, one of more than 100 deaths reported in the early fighting. A large force of Ukrainian military troops were stationed at Kharkiv to try and repel the Russian invasion, while an “underground resistance” of citizens “able to hold a weapon” have also formed, answering the Ukrainian Defense Minister’s call to arms, Foreign Policy reported.
Residents have been trying to flee the city since the bombardment began and taken to the subway to keep themselves safe from the bombing, but Sky News reported the longest line that they saw was not one to leave and run, but rather to give blood.
The Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Program (CKSCP) says that since forming the partnership, more than 2,500 Cincinnatians and Kharkivities have traveled between the two cities to “share, teach, learn and understand.”
The goal of the sister city partnership is to “enhance civic, cultural and economic potential for both cities,” CKSCP’s website says.
The Cincinnati sign on the side of the Duke Energy Convention Center was lit up in blue and yellow early Friday morning in support of Kharkiv and the entire country of Ukraine.
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