How locals in Kharkiv are switching to Ukrainian language amid the terror of Russian bombing

euronews.com:

_Konstantin Zadorozhny, 50, teaches at the university in Kharkiv, a city that has been under heavy bombardment since the start of the war in Ukraine on 24 February. _

Here he tells Euronews about the damage inflicted on the city, the psychological trauma of living under attack and how some in this Russian-speaking area are switching to Ukrainian to differentiate them from those bombing Kharkiv.

"At 5 am on 24 February we woke to explosions. The first one or two days it was mostly rumbling because they were hitting military objects first. And then very big problems started, Russian troops tried to take the city by storm.

"In Ukraine, a lot of people went into territorial defence. These are actually armed residents. Many of them have some experience -- although by no means all of them -- having also served in the conflict in Donbas (eastern Ukraine) that has been going on for eight years. But still, most of them are ordinary people with no combat experience.

"I do not go far, because my health condition is not very good after my heart attack.

"What's happening in the neighbourhood? I showed pictures of the Palace of Labour. It's not far from me, near the city hall. Either a missile or a very powerful bomb hit it. Constant explosions from all sides.

"Our mayor's office posts pictures, our regional administration posts pictures too. In this respect it's good - the awareness is high. Well, friends, relatives also from all over Kharkiv tell us, send photos.

"Yesterday they said that they were shelled very strongly and my friends who live there confirm it. We have a residential area Saltovka - a very large residential area. There are high-rise buildings of nine, 12, 16 floors, Soviet construction, about 40 houses have burned down.