Seeds of hope Kharkiv residents work to restore war-ravaged forest

Yuriy Bengus surveyed a scene of destruction. The Zhuravli forest, on the northern edge of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, was a blackened mess.

- Luke Harding

Rooks cawed from burned pine trees and hopped between stumps. A dead bird lay in an abandoned military dugout. War was down the road. From somewhere to the north of Kharkiv came a muffled boom.

Bengus, a biologist, plunged his spade into the sandy earth. "From an ecological point of view, oaks are most suitable," he said. His assistant, Yulia Kucherevska, a 16-year-old volunteer, reached into a plastic bag, pulling out three acorns that she tossed into a shallow hole. The pair moved on to the next spot and threw in three more. Behind them a No 16 tram rattled past.

In spring 2022 Russian troops had tried to seize Kharkiv, home to a million people. The city's defenders dug trenches in the forest and blocked the road - now named Invincible Street after having previously been called Hero of Labour Alley - with concrete blocks and tank traps. Meeting fierce resistance, the Russians pulled back.

Ever since, the Russian army has been bombing Kharkiv, using ballistic and other missiles. The forest is near the city's most pummelled district - Saltivka, its high-rise blocks gutted shells and a park based around a body of water.

On 17 September a Russian warplane hit the green site with a bomb. Four firefighters tackling an existing fire were injured, with one losing an arm. The blaze consumed four acres of woodland, killing animals and scaring away coots on the water nearby.

Bengus, along with a group of volunteers, is attempting to restore the forest. Why bother, given that Russian forces might come back and with fighting continuing a mere 12 miles away? "The oaks will take 25 years to reach maturity, but I'm certain the forest will survive," he said. "I'm more optimistic now than before. Where we are standing will be Ukraine."