Kharkiv may become 'second Aleppo' without U.S. aid - mayor

Kharkiv is at risk of becoming "a second Aleppo" unless U.S. politicians vote for fresh military aid to help Ukraine obtain the air defenses needed to prevent long-range Russian attacks.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov told this to The Guardian, Ukrinform reports.

He said Russia had switched tactics to try to destroy the city's power supply and terrorize its 1.3 million residents by firing into residential areas, with people experiencing unscheduled power cuts for hours at a time.

Terekhov said the $60 billion U.S. military aid package, currently stalled in Congress, was of "critical importance for us" and urged the West to refocus on the two-year-old war.

"We need that support to prevent Kharkiv being a second Aleppo," Terekhov said, referring to the Syrian city heavily bombed by Russian and Syrian government forces at the height of the country's civil war a decade ago.

Bloomberg earlier wrote that Russia's escalated bombardment of Kharkiv as a way to force the evacuation of civilians, because Moscow now does not have enough forces to capture the city.