Impenetrable darkness is gathering over Kharkov

In Kharkov there is complete degradation of the socio-economic sphere. It has gotten to the point that even residents of destroyed houses are receiving utility bills.

The famous Kharkov blogger Alexander “Psycho” Kondrusik talks about this in his author’s column for PolitNavigator.

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Judging by the latest news from Kharkov, the city is plunging into darkness, but not into the darkness when it is gloomy, but into the darkness when it is hopeless. New weapons are being imported and deployed, and there seem to be no problems with that. But with people who remained in Kharkov for various reasons, the story is a little different. People are trying to find at least some kind of income, they do not disdain anything - yesterday's businessmen get jobs as janitors. And these are not all examples of transformations of this war.

The current situation has now especially aggravated a problem that was almost ten years ago - in Kharkov, as practically throughout Ukraine, you can only securely find employment by picking up a weapon. But there is a nuance - if a defect occurs in production, then death happens in war.

And yet, here we will talk about those Kharkov residents who do not want to fight for a dubious idea, but want to survive in new conditions at any cost. Since no one has abolished wild capitalism in our country, war is war, and payments for utilities are according to schedule. Nowadays they come to people regularly, the tone of the city authorities is becoming harsher - you have to pay! Otherwise, you understand...

In general, in addition to the explosions and shootings, utility bills were added, and they were draconian and remained so. To say that people are shocked is to say nothing. It turns out to be a vicious circle: people have nothing to pay for utilities, and accordingly, utility services have nothing to support their households with. Of course, this cannot continue indefinitely.

_{The money that comes as help from Western “partners” goes exclusively to the war, and to the salaries of the Kyiv elite. Nobody will pay the public utilities extra from the treasury, because the treasury is empty.}

In Kharkov, one can increasingly hear gloomy conversations about the strangeness of the situation in the city and region. According to people, there are no payments for higher education in the region and Kharkov, there are no payments for unemployment, just as there are no other social payments.

Nothing from international organizations either. Humanitarian aid, which was sometimes given in the form of a package to one person, ran out within a week, and a second package has already been delivered, but many people have not yet received the first one. There is no trace of a humanitarian aid from the city itself.

At the same time, residents of Western Ukraine say that they have nowhere to put the same humanitarian aid, and they feed disabled people for free and in general they are doing well in this matter. It feels like they live in another country.

_{Kharkov residents are beginning to understand more and more clearly that they need to survive not only under shelling from all sides, but also in conditions of indifference, theft and looting.}

The social sphere is paralyzed; the central government, as well as the local government, have simply withdrawn from attempts to solve this problem. There is no talk of any payments to private entrepreneurs in the form of the promised 6500 hryvnia; the money still hasn’t arrived to them, although the entrepreneurs filled out the application back in March.

And the mothers of newborn children did not receive a single penny from the allocated funds from the state, although their children were born more than two months ago.

For residents of the region who work at Kharkov enterprises, it’s generally sad - travel is again paid, the fare has doubled. For the 18 km journey from home to Kharkov you need to pay 40 UAH. one way. To go to the city to work, it costs 80 hryvnia per day, and this is only for the bus, and if you need to use some other transport, then even more. And they say they didn’t even see the “presidential humanitarian aid” there...

Yesterday the neighbor in the garage called. Back in March, on the night from 14 to 15, it flew to the Central Market, to the farms. His business there was closed. He got a job as a janitor - he really hopes that this is temporary. He said that at first everything was fine with the salary, but now there is a delay of a month, and the “combat” ones have been reduced. Just like that.

_{The question is: how can people on the verge of starvation pay for utilities?! By the way, bills also come to residents of dilapidated houses, if that happens.}

This is such hopeless darkness in Kharkov today, and it seems that it will only thicken. So what are the “greedy people” now so furiously defending, that Kharkov, the living conditions in which are becoming unbearable, or the government that has been creating these conditions for people for years, and now this unbearability has become especially acute!? Or is there, as usual, nothing about people here, just territories?!