Okhtyrka in northeastern Ukraine is a place like no other. While the towns and villages of this region located near the Russian border fell like skittles during the invasion by Moscow forces launched on February 24, this locality of 48,000 inhabitants located on the Vorskla river said “niet” .
A column of Russian tanks swept over Okhtyrka on the first day of the invasion, February 24, with the intention of capturing it and moving towards the capital, kyiv. “They thought they would pass very quickly,” recalls the mayor. Pavlo Kouzmenko took the lead in an immediate response that saw Ukrainian troops force a hasty retreat from their opponents, who left behind tanks and other equipment.
A month-long siege followed, with the Russians bombarding the town almost daily, destroying the town hall, a shopping mall, water and sewage systems, a fuel depot, and the local thermal power station. After a month of encirclement, the Russian troops retreated, as in other regions, on March 26. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has named Okhtyrka a “hero city”, an honorary title awarded only to another city in the northeast, Kharkiv.