Inside the Ukrainian town freed by daring special forces soldiers

Kharkiv, Balakliya - For six months, she lived in fear. First in a basement, where she and her three-month-old grandson sheltered for a month as Russian forces blasted their way into Balakliya early in the war; then, over summer, in their garden, trying to grow the food that had vanished from the shops.

“Rockets would fly constantly over our heads. The only thing we knew was that our guys would not shoot us. So it was calming to work in the garden,” said the grandmother, who declined to be named, her voice trembling between tears and laughter.

“And when our people freed us, the Russians started throwing rockets here and there and it was scary. Very scary. It was impossible to describe how scary it was.”

The mixture of euphoria, relief, and deep shock was typical of the residents of Balakliya liberated by a surprise Ukrainian offensive last week.

Last week’s Ukrainian offensive does not yet have a name, and the details of what happened are still shrouded in the fog of war.

It could be called the sixth battle of Kharkiv - following four in the Second World War and a fifth that unfolded around the regional capital between February and May.

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