YYuri Bengus, a biologist, surveyed the site of the devastation. Zhoravly Forest, on the northern edge of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was a black mess. The crow cawed from the scorched pines and jumped between the trunks. A dead bird lies in an abandoned military bunker. War was on the way. From somewhere north of Kharkiv, there came a muffled thud.
Bengus dropped his shovel into the sandy ground. “From an environmental point of view, oak trees are the most suitable,” he said. His assistant, Yulia Kucherevska, a 16-year-old volunteer, reached into a plastic bag and pulled out three acorns, which she dropped into a shallow hole. The pair moved to the next place and threw three more. Behind them, tram No. 16 passed.
In the spring of 2022, Russian forces attempted to seize Kharkiv, which has a population of one million people. The city’s defenders dug trenches in the forest and blocked the road – now called Invincible Street and formerly called Action Hero Alley – with concrete blocks and tank traps. Facing fierce resistance, the Russians withdrew.
Since then, the Russian army has been bombing Kharkiv using ballistic and other missiles. The forest is located near the city’s most bombed area – Saltyvka, its towering blocks destroyed by shells – and the Water Park, a park centered around a body of water. On September 17, a Russian warplane bombed the Green Site with an air bomb. Four firefighters were injured while dealing with an existing fire, and one of them lost his arm. The fire burned through four acres of forest, killing animals and driving coots away from nearby waters.
Bengus, along with a group of volunteers, is now trying to restore the forest. Why should we care, given that Russian forces might return and with the fighting still only 12 miles away? “It will take 25 years for the oak trees to reach maturity. But I am sure the forest will survive. I am now more optimistic than before. Where we stand will be Ukraine,” he said.
He added: “Russia has been trying to destroy us for hundreds of years, especially our language and culture. But we always return to life as a people and a nation. “They can bomb us, of course, but I don’t think they can control Kharkiv.” He continued: “We have a different mentality. Russians obey authority. “Our government is listening to us.”
The biologist’s ambitious plan is to replace the charred trees with English oaks. Quercus Robor, Which is native to Ukraine and Europe. A virulent mycorrhizal fungus has already wiped out several Scots pines in Kharkiv, causing them to shed their orange bark. “Oak trees encourage biodiversity. They help fungi grow and are good for insects and birds,” he said.
After Bengus posted about the forest on his page Facebook pageHe was inundated with offers of help. Children from the neighborhood school, Lycee No. 23, collected 50 kg of walnuts. A scientist in Kiev sent a box belonging to a pyramid-shaped variety of oak. Students place acorns in the water, rejecting any that float to the top, as the healthy acorn will sink.
Kucherevska, who teaches at the school, visits the forest three times a week after class and before dark. “It’s fun,” she said. “I come here with my friends,” she said. “If there was an air raid warning, my parents wouldn’t let me go.” So far, she has buried “about 40,000 acorns.” Not everyone will survive, she said, but This means many new trees.
She and her biology teacher, Anna Boschka, joined a digging party earlier this week, along with Bingus and his wife Lyudmila. Bochka made a note of where the seedlings would sprout. What about the bomb threat? “We are used to it. We have adapted. I refuse to be terrified. Everyone does what they do. In our case that is planting oak trees. I believe Kharkiv has a future,” she said.
Outside the city, the situation is bleak. Both sides are building fortifications in wooded front-line areas, and using trees to hide armored vehicles and firing positions. In May, the Russians launched a cross-border attack on the city of Vovchansk, now in ruins, in Kharkiv region. They are approaching Kubyansk – which was captured by the Russians at the start of the overall invasion, liberated, and is in danger of being captured again. Russian air strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and cities on Christmas Day left half a million people in the Kharkiv region without heat.
More than 300 forest fires were recorded in 2024, the worst year on record, said Yevhen Vasilenko, spokesman for the Kharkiv Regional Emergency Management Department. He said Russian bombing was often the cause, with heavy forest mining adding to the problem. One fire in September The village of Studenok was overrunnear the city of Isium, burning 236 homes and forcing 200 people to flee. It continued for a week.
“We cannot use helicopters to extinguish fires from the air because of the war. It is impossible. And you cannot walk in the forest because of mines. We use sappers to extinguish the fire,” Vasilenko said. “I don’t think anyone with experience working in a situation can You may be bombed and attacked by drones, or you may step on a mine at any time. It’s very difficult.
He added that the Studenok fire destroyed 4,000 acres of forest between Kharkiv and the war-torn Donetsk region. The smoke made it difficult for people to breathe. Firefighters rescued residents and – where possible – rescued rabbits, hedgehogs and tortoises. Ducks and many dogs died. The problem is that Russia wants to destroy our country. “They are destroying our ecosystem as well,” he said.
After planting the new oak trees, Pejnos returned to his apartment in Kharkiv and collected more acorns from the local garden. He pointed to the trees he planted in the 1980s next to his high-rise building: the exotic ginkgo tree and the towering redwood. “The neighbors on the first floor are not happy with the redwood. They complain that it blocks their light,” he said. “But when it comes to nature and biodiversity, we have to do something.”