7th April 2014, 8 p.m. In downtown Kharkiv, during the pr-o-Russian rally held near the Regional State Administration, separatists expressed their distrust in the Kharkiv Regional Council and declared the creation of a “sovereign state” called “Kharkiv People’s Republic”.

All the events that took place in Donetsk since March 2014 could have happened in Kharkiv as well. However, Kharkiv appeared to be the city that was the first to resist and fight back pro-Russian terrorists. “Kharkiv is a very unique city. We don’t care much about what is happening around us. But we do care about what is happening in our city,” Kharkiv residents say.

The Battle of Kharkiv contains interviews with Kharkiv residents, including activists, members of parliament and officials, entrepreneurs, artists, and other people who took to the streets of Kharkiv in November 2013 to fight for their native city and stayed brave till the end. This book also contains memoirs of the Security Service of Ukraine and Counterintelligence operatives who were working on the Russian trace in the separatist events in the city and investigated 2014—2015 terrorist attacks.