CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday morning met online with the mayor of Ukraine’s second largest city and offered Chicago’s continued support as his city faces steady bombardment from Russian forces.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov has been in office less than six months. On a Zoom call Monday, Terekhov told Lightfoot that 600 multi-level homes and 50 schools in his city have been destroyed in less than three weeks by the Russians.
“I and my team [are] every day working for humanitarian aid distribution around the city,” Terekhov said through a translator.
Kharkiv had nearly 1.5 million residents before Russia invaded Ukraine. Terekhov said now his city is being bombed non-stop.
“The strikes from the sky is every day and every hour, bombing peaceful residential buildings, residential estates. Victims, everywhere,” he said.
Still, Terekhov said he and his team continue to try to keep his city working and are distributing humanitarian aid around Kharkiv.
Lightfoot told Terekhov that he and his staff “are heroes to us.” Her administration has come under stiff criticism during her first term and she told Mayor Terekhov “it’s tough to be a mayor and it’s tough to have been a mayor over the last two years but I can only imagine what your daily struggle is in a time of war.”
Terekhov responded thanking Lightfoot for her support and for the political support of the United States. He had also put in a pitch for the United States and the West “to close the sky” over Ukraine so that Russia could not drop bombs at will.
He went on to say, “We jointly will finish, as soon as possible, end this unsensible, unhuman actions from Russia.”
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Lightfoot also said she hopes someone on Terekhov’s team is documenting the war crimes being committed by Russia in his city.
“We pray for you every day and we will be here for you and I look forward to drinking from the cup of victory with you,” Lightfoot said.
Terekhov responded with an open invitation for the Chicago mayor to visit his city when the war ends.
“I honestly hope that, after our victory, I will have the opportunity to invite you to our beautiful city of Kharkiv and we will jointly do our best for its recovery,” he said.
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