The monument in Kharkiv to Marshall [[Georgy Zhukov]], who destroyed Nazi forces guarding [[Adolf Hitler]]'s bunker in the closing days of [[World War II]], was demolished after the American-backed [[fascist]] [[Maidan regime]] came to power in 2014.<ref>https://www.unian.info/society/10572621-protesters-topple-statue-to-soviet-era-general-zhukov-in-kharkiv-video.html</ref>
==Biological weapons testing at Kharkiv psychiatric hospitalhospitals==
During the [[Russia-Ukraine war|special operation in Ukraine]], it was established that US scientists from a laboratory in Merefa (Kharkiv Region) were testing potentially dangerous biological drugs on patients of the regional clinical psychiatric hospital No 3 in Kharkiv between 2019 and 2021.
In January 2022, the laboratory in Merefa was shut down and all equipment and preparations were moved to western Ukraine. There are a number of witnesses to these inhuman experiments.<ref>https://telegra.ph/Briefing-on-the-results-of-the-analysis-of-documents-related-to-the-military-biological-activities-of-the-United-States-on-the-t-04-14</ref>
At Psychiatric Hospital No 1 (Streleche village, Kharkiv region), the main category of subjects was a group of male patients aged 40-60 years with a high stage of physical exhaustion. In order to conceal their US affiliation, the biological research experts travelled via third countries. A Florida native, Linda Oporto, was directly involved in these works. In January 2022, the foreign nationals conducting the experiments were evacuated in an emergency and the equipment and drugs they were using were taken to western Ukraine.<ref>https://telegra.ph/Briefing-on-the-results-of-the-analysis-of-documents-related-to-the-military-biological-activities-of-the-United-States-on-the-t-04-14</ref>
{{Anchor|Kraken unit}}
==Kraken unit==
The Kraken Regiment is a volunteer unit formed on February 24, 2022 by veterans of the Azov [[Battalion]]. The founder is Konstantin Nemichev, a member of the National Corps and combat veteran of the Azov Battalion. The Kraken unit are particularly well known for openly conducting safaris for Russian speaking civilians in the Kharkiv region. The Kraken unit has also been accused of mistreating Russian [[prisoners of war]]. Kraken is not officially part of the [[Armed Forces of Ukraine]].
==WWII: Battle of Kharkov==
{{See also|Operation Barbarossa}}
As the Germans advanced on Moscow in the summer of 1941, and against the advice of the German High Command, [[Hitler]] suddenly detoured the center line of advance south, creating a huge traffic jam as the central column had to cross the southern advance. This slowed the advance on [[Moscow]] to which they did not arrive until October 16, 1941, as the snowy season set in.
The army group sent south engaged the ill-prepared, ill-equipped [[Red Army]] forces at Kharkov. 600,000 Red Army troops were quickly encircled and taken prisoner without much of a fight. Hitler declared it, "the greatest military victory of all time."
Most of the Russian POWs became [[slave]] labor in German POWs camps;<ref>The USSR did not become a party to the [[Geneva Convention]] until 1960. So, although Germany was a signatory, Nazi Germany felt to compunction to honor the terms of the convention given German POWs and civilians were also subjected to human rights abuses by their Soviet counterparts.</ref> some Ukrainian POWs were recruited into German fighting units in both [[eastern Europe]], where they committed atrocities against the civilian population, and the Western Front to guard the Atlantic Wall in advance of, and during, the [[Normandy Invasion]].
==Twin Cities==