Kharkiv pounded amid all BRITISH troops are leading Nato war games on Estonia's border with Russia in the alliance's largest military drill since the Cold War.

RUSSIA pounded Kharkiv with missiles, kamikaze drones and artillery yesterday amid signs that it will try to capture Ukraine's second city.

- Will Stewart

"We fear this is the start of a Kharkiv assault and that we will all perish here," said resident Olena Kurylo, who became known as the "face of the war" after her home was destroyed in the first moments of the conflict unleashed by Vladimir Putin.

Ms Kurylo, 54, said repeated overnight attacks meant residents were unable to sleep and that "we are at the end of our tether from tiredness", adding: "This is their aim to exhaust us and make us leave the city so they can take it."

Maniac

But the defiant teacherwho was treated in Britain for damage to her eye in the first 2022 strikes said: "We won't leave. This is our land. This is home."