Bomb shelters, guerrilla war: Building Ukraine's resistance
ABC News
Some people in Ukraine's second-largest city are preparing to fight back if Russia invades
KHARKIV, Ukraine -- The table tennis coach, the chaplain's wife, the dentist and the firebrand nationalist have little in common except a desire to defend their hometown and a sometimes halting effort to speak Ukrainian instead of Russian.
The situation in Kharkiv, just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from some of the tens of thousands of Russian troops massed at the border of Ukraine, feels particularly perilous. Ukraine's second-largest city is one of its industrial centers and includes two factories that restore old Soviet-era tanks or build new ones.
It's also a city of fractures: between Ukrainian speakers and those who stick with the Russian that dominated until recently; between those who enthusiastically volunteer to resist a Russian offensive and those who just want to live their lives. Which side wins out in Kharkiv could well determine the fate of Ukraine.
If Russia invades, some of Kharkiv’s 1 million plus people say they stand ready to abandon their civilian lives and wage a guerrilla campaign against one of the world’s greatest military powers. They expect many Ukrainians will do the same.
