Twisted debris indicate that the sanctions have not yet stopped Russia

Since Russia has launched a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have imposed far -reaching sanctions on the aggressor, trying to squeeze their military efforts.

But on earth, in Ukraine, these sanctions seem to have a limited impact.

Not far from Kharkiv, in a secret place, lies a collection of twisted metal residues from attacks in and around the city. It is a savaged sourdough – the remains of many Russian bombs, missiles, drones and drones used to hit and around Harkiva over the last three and a half years.

“This is the material evidence with which we, as the prosecutor’s office, will prove the guilt of Russia for war crimes,” Dimetra Chubenko tells me from the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office. Each piece of rocket and drone was carefully assembled and analyzed here.

DMYTRO shows me one of the latest editions – the Russian version of Iran Shaheed Drone. Recently, Russia fired from hundreds of these drones Kamikaze in cities and cities of Ukraine. They are relatively cheap, he tells me – about $ 20,000 (£ 15,000) each.

It points to a nearby carcass of a Russian cruise missile. He says they cost millions.

But these weapons are not completely Russian – they contain “many components from Western countries,” says Dmytro. “Probably (for Russia) bypassing sanctions, but nothing is an option,” he adds.

Donald Trump seems to have lost patience with President Vladimir Putin. After the early efforts of rapprochement between the United States and Russia, the US president threatens to strengthen the sanctions on Kremlin if Russia disagreed with the ceasefire in Ukraine by Friday.

Trump said Secondary sanctions will also take effect On that day, affecting any country that sells with Russia. It has already imposed an additional 25% on India for the purchase of Russian oil. American Messenger Steve Witcoof met Putin In Moscow on Wednesday, the negotiations are ahead of the upcoming term.

So, if President Trump decided to impose more sanctions on the Kremlin, would it be enough to force Russia to change the course in this war? DYMTRO believes that the blow to Russian oil and gas exports may have a significant economic impact.

“We will not be able to stop it with the help of our fingers, but we need to do it, we need to act,” he says. There is hope that President Trump can act.

Kharkiv, only 30 kilometers from the Russian border, carried the main blow of many blows throughout the war. Thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed. Almost 3,000 civilians were killed across the region, 97 of them.

Police Colonel Serhia Balvinov shows me the burnt police headquarters in which he worked. In 2022, the Russian strike killed three of his officers and six civilians. It indicates a vasodly hole in the wall where the rockets entered. According to him, Russian tactics have not changed. “Russia is trying to hit and kill as many civilians as possible.”

Colonel Balvinov’s task is to investigate every civil death. It leaves no stone without broken. He has 1000 men and women who work for him who have now dispersed in the cellars right around the city. They conduct a painstaking forensic examination to build a criminal case against those responsible.

Photos of Russian military officers who were related to certain attacks, closed on the wall – The Wanted.

In another building, investigators are conducting DNA tests at the crime site to determine the latest victims – Ukrainian civilians who died in a Russian missile attack when they are queuing to collect water. Colonel Bolvinov shows me footage from the strike – unrecognizable burnt bodies lie on the ground.

“It’s hard to do this work, but this is a very important job for future justice for us, for the Ukrainian people,” he says. It shows me a three -dimensional computer image of a mass grave in Izium, where more than 400 bodies were found. “Some cases leave the scar for all of us, and we will never forget this injury,” he says.

Colonel Balvinov says he wants to see the end of this war. He hopes that President Putin’s pressure will work out. But the police chief does not want peace. “Peace without justice is not really peace,” he says. Even if the ceasefire can be coordinated, it will still not resolve the wounds of most Ukrainian people.

In the cemetery outside Kharkiva, one reminder of the cost of the war: the titles of dead Ukrainian soldiers are constantly growing. Each grave is marked with blue and gold of the national flag. Silence here is disturbed only by the sound that pulls in the wind.

Nearby, in the civilian department of the Mother’s Cemetery and her family, they place flowers on the grave of the daughter. Sofia was only 14 years old when the Russian bomb took her life last year. She was sitting on a park bench in Kharkiv, enjoying a warm summer day with a friend.

I ask her mother Julia if the pressure of President Trump’s pressure on Russia can bring comfort, but she is not optimistic.

“These conversations have been going on too long,” she says to me.

“But there are no results yet … Hope goes out.”