Okhtyrka in northeastern Ukraine is a place like no other. The 48,000 residents said the area along the Vorskla River was “neat” as towns and villages near the Russian border were razed to the ground by an offensive by Moscow forces that began on February 24.

A line of Russian tanks stormed Okhtirka on the first day of the invasion, February 24, with the intention of capturing it and advancing on the capital, Kyiv. “They thought they were going to get through pretty quickly,” Mayer recalls. Pavlo Kouzmenko led an immediate response that saw Ukrainian troops hastily withdraw from the enemy, abandoning tanks and other equipment.

As the month-long siege continued, the Russians bombed the city daily, destroying the town hall, a shopping mall, water and sewage systems, a fuel depot, and the local thermal power plant. After a month-long encirclement, the Russian army retreated on March 26, as in other areas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky named Okhtyrka a “Hero City”, an honorary title given only to Kharkiv, another city in the northeast.