Most here were injured while at home. "If Kharkiv falls, then all of Ukraine falls," Eugene, 36, tells me. Kharkiv was once Ukraine's capital - it has the parks, cathedrals, museums and theatres you would expect, as well as the Antonov aircraft factory and tank and turbine manufacturers. The Ukrainians are improvising in this war. His shoes are a pair of white Puma trainers - "You need to be fast out here," he says. The thin blanket with tiny roses on it, rises and falls with his mechanical breathing. But across the east and south of Ukraine, Russia has been advancing. The children's intensive care unit is on the ground floor. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. The men lie like wax figures, some with hands reaching out, their matted beards frozen stiff in the cold. He plans for an eighth, in a free Ukraine. The guts of one are spilled across the forecourt. Their weapons have been taken, and I ask Uta, one of the officers, what will happen to the bodies. Was it 24 hours ago, or 48? Watch: Doctors removed a bullet from between Dmitriy's skull and vertebrae. He describes the fight so far, "Sabotage groups are probing our lines out, we have direct tank battles. When we come up and kind of take them as prisoners of war, they start to open fire on our troops.". Many of the homes there have been destroyed or damaged by Russian shelling. Soldier after soldier says they need air defence, a no-fly zone. We met only this afternoon, but already I know that just last week, his father Oleg was killed defending the city, and Lt Gromadsky is the seventh generation of military in his family. With a crump, Russian shells are fired from their positions 900m away across snow-covered fields. Please share your experience if it is safe to do so by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. He laughs when I say that Russia says it isn't targeting civilians. How are the Russians fighting, I ask. Leaving the front to return to the centre of the city is almost like entering another world. It is hoped he'll make a full recovery, but for the moment he's in a sorry state, with tubes taking out fluids from his small body in plastic bottles hanging beneath his bed. Please include your name, age and location with any submission. Are you or your family in Ukraine? Before curfew I make my way to the city's Hospital Number 4 to meet Dr Alexander Dukhovskyi, head of paediatrics. Lying in the snow, are a dozen or so frozen Russian corpses. His toes poke out from under the blanket and a hand, bruised and bloodied peeks out too. What there isn't here in Kharkiv, is any surprise at the Russian attack. At night the city is in near total blackout. Grinning skulls hanging from every corner as we bounce along rutted dirt road. 2022 BBC. Two petrol stations just outside the city that have been destroyed by shelling and gunfire. The past two weeks have seemed like an eternity, yet peace can be remembered as if it were yesterday. Read about our approach to external linking. Few neighbourhoods have escaped some kind of damage. From the front passenger seat Lt Gromadsky says, "Sometimes they use this tactic - first, they raise a white flag above their equipment, then come closer to our positions. There are trenches dug in nearby. Some will be joining Lt Gromadsky's unit and working alongside a medic who goes by the name of Reaper. In Ukraine, as in Syria, the population is being bussed out of their home cities as Russian forces continue their advance. You can also get in touch in the following ways: If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. The Russian army has met more determined resistance than it expected, but cities continue to fall. "Don't worry, we are well defended," he says as he gestures to a pile of American-made Javelin guided anti-tank missiles. "Lockheed Martin, Texas," is written on their casing. And at this miserable spot on Kharkiv's edge, unremarkable for its ordinariness two weeks ago, surrounded by frozen corpses, it's as if time is standing still. It's close to the border with Russia and the nightly shelling from Russian artillery and warplanes gives no rest. They shoot with mortar shells at first, and then tanks fire at our positions. Watch: How Russia is using tactics refined over a decade in Syria. "You've heard of the grim reaper, right?" Their government has been criticised for being ill-prepared, and now there is a rush to bring men forward to the front. "We see the enemy, we kill the enemy, there's no conversation, that's it," he says. "Since 2014 we knew they would come, maybe in a year, 10 years, or 1,000 years, but we knew they would come". Its narrow windows catch the brilliant light from the snow outside and glint over the golden icons of saints above the nurses' station. Again, I head to the city's edge, and pass through the front lines into a wasteland. Read about our approach to external linking. asks one. He's also in command of this defence line at the edge of a village. Surround, besiege, and terrorise the population. At 04:55 on 24 February, Eugene received a call from a friend saying the attack was about to begin. The Russian war-playbook has been perfected in Syria over the past 10 years. He's a part of a reconnaissance team working near apartment blocks. The BBC's Quentin Sommerville and cameraman Darren Conway have spent the week with the Ukrainian forces as they fight to stop a further Russian advance. "What do you think will happen, we will leave them for the dogs," he says with a shrug. Since then, it has suffered nightly Russian airstrikes and shelling, with dozens of civilians killed and hundreds injured. The army cook is reassuringly large with a knitted hat atop his head. I get inside another armoured vehicle, which two weeks ago was doing cash pickups at the city's banks. it doesn't matter how they fight because we fight like lions and they won't win.". Some of the flats have taken direct hits and in the car park, a car lies ripped apart from another grad missile strike. In the early days of the invasion, Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine fought back a Russian armoured column. "They fight like it's 1941 - they have no manoeuvrability, they just come to the front and that's all. This report contains material some viewers will find disturbing. And there I meet Eugene, a great Viking of a man, heavily tattooed with an orange beard. Watch: Our correspondent on the front line, with Ukraines troops - this report contains graphic images of casualties. The shelling continues like clockwork at the edge of this bombed-out village - "Incoming, outgoing, incoming, outgoing," Lt Gromadsky flicks his hands with each report. Vladimir Putin said he wanted to demilitarise Ukraine, instead he's creating a no-man's land. There are blood-red footprints around his corpse. ", We move along the front lines from position to position. "Then I heard the rockets attack our city," he says. "You'll get it at the front," yells an officer, and moments later they are gone. The regular army is being merged with civilian defence forces. And this, too, should come as no surprise. I tell him and he asks if it's true that British volunteers have come to fight for Ukraine. Like everyone else he hasn't been home since. On the floor, rocket-propelled grenade launchers roll around. And for all their front-line courage, there is a recognition that their abilities on the ground will not be enough. Then, silently, he takes me down corridor after corridor of victims of Russian attacks. A huge logistical and humanitarian effort is going on behind the scenes to keep Kharkiv running. The relentless Russian shelling has meant that most of the 1.5m population has fled. Ask the young soldier at the front when the attack happened, or the old lady in the hospital bed when her home was shelled, and they look at you confused. It is bitterly cold and two puppies are playing around Lt Gromadsky's feet. "Where's my body armour?" "Incoming," he says, and his left hand ticks up. In a frozen landscape on the city's north-eastern edge, 21-year-old Lieutenant Yevgen Gromadsky stands with hands outstretched. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Nearby, is a pile of British next-generation light anti-tank weapon (NLAW) missiles. His face is scraped and scarred with hundreds of marks, his right eye is not quite closed. Inside his armoured vehicle, a Russian army hat - a trophy from their first capture - hanging from the ceiling, he continues, "We are shooting back with anti-tank guided missiles and also the usual small arms. Underneath his hospital whites, he's wearing a Miami Beach 2015 T-shirt, with the American flag. It, too, has now been put into the war effort. "Outgoing," he says, lifting his right hand to accompany the thump of fire from his positions. I meet an intelligence team, who drive with anti-tank missiles ready to use in the back of their vehicles. The first casualty of war is time. "Eliminates even the most advanced tanks," its manufacturer Saab promises on its website. The position was attacked on Monday (or was it the day before, he wonders), two Russian tanks and an armoured vehicle. They have a lot of people, a lot of tanks, a lot of vehicles, but we are fighting for our land, and we are protecting our families. As we drive through the city, with its wide boulevards, and fine buildings, we reach a Soviet-Era apartment complex. He hasn't gone home in weeks. There are piles of cakes and biscuits, made by local factories for the troops. In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, time is elastic. Inside the truck there are Mexican Day of the Dead air fresheners. A few days ago, the doctors removed a bullet from under his skull and vertebrae. They dismount, they scatter, there's always a lot of people.". He offers bowls of steaming hot borscht - "Have sour cream with it," he insists. Viewers in the UK can watch an extended report from Kharkiv on BBC iPlayer. "They fight like stupid animals," says Reaper. Early in the mornings, queues can still be seen at pharmacies, banks, supermarkets and petrol stations, as those who stayed behind stock up on supplies. He wants to know where I'm from. "What aircraft have you given us," he says as he finishes his borscht. They are in the hallways because Russian shells have landed nearby, so the patients aren't safe in the wards with large windows. Back in the rear, the field kitchen is in a coffee shop. The days have become one, they tell you. A steady beat of Russian strikes fall through the night. he asks. I sit beside a 30-year-old battalion commander, Sergey. In a bed nearby is eight-year-old Dmitry. At a marshalling point on the city's eastern edge, I watch as buses arrive with hundreds of freshly equipped soldiers.