Reflections by EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová on her visit to Kharkiv

"There are cities that survive war.

And then there is Kharkiv.

I have never seen a city use its metro like Kharkiv does. Elsewhere, the metro gets people from one place to another. In Kharkiv, it keeps an entire city alive.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said something I will not forget: "For us, the metro is life."

EU Delegation to Ukraine

He is right. The metro is the city's largest bomb shelter, its transport backbone and the site of underground "metro schools".

At the start of the full scale invasion, 160,000 people lived underground for almost three months. Many still spend their nights there. Today, children learn in classrooms built inside metro stations because the world above them is too dangerous. Around 100,000 school age children still live in Kharkiv. Twenty two underground schools already operate, but the city still needs more to allow in person students education.

The resilience of Kharkiv is impossible to understand without meeting its people.

I stood with Liliya Averyanova, who lost her son, the legendary pilot "Juice", at the memorial to children killed by Russia. Later, she showed me another station displaying children's drawings. I stopped in front of one that read: "The school of life taught me another lesson; I saw my school in flames."

EU Delegation to Ukraine

I also met families arriving at the city's transit centre, where UNHCR, with EU funding, provides support to people evacuated from villages near the frontline. Since May last year, more than 42,000 people have passed through it l. Most carried little more than a few bags and the hope of finding safety.

EU Delegation to Ukraine

I ended my visit to Kharkiv at the hospital, where governor Oleh Syniehubov showed me an excellent example of transforming a soviet-era hospital into a modern, efficient facility adapted to the realities of wartime, including an underground clinic.

EU Delegation to Ukraine

Over the past 24 hours alone, Russian attacks killed and injured dozens more civilians across Ukraine. Four people were killed and 48 injured in Kharkiv region alone.

Just an ordinary day for Kharkiv.

Kharkiv does not ask for admiration. But still, I admire this city for its resilience!"