The twisted wreckage shows the sanctions have not yet stopped by Russia

Since Russia has launched its large -scale invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have imposed long -term sanctions on the aggressor, in an attempt to provoke their war effort.

But on the ground here in Ukraine, these sanctions seem to have a limited effect.

Located outside Kharkiv, on a secret site, a group of mineral remains of the attacks inside and around the city. It is a guard of brutality – the remains of many Russian bombs, missiles, missiles, and drones used to strike and around Kharkiv over the three and a half years last year.

“This is the material evidence that we prove, as two years prosecutor, Russia’s guilt in the crimes of war,” says Li Dimetro Chopinko from the Prosecutor’s Office in the Kharkiv region. Each piece of missile and drone has carefully collected and analyzed it.

DMYTro shows me one of the latest version – a Russian version of a drone. Russia recently launched hundreds of these drones in the cities and cities of Ukraine. Li says: It is relatively cheap to make it – about $ 20,000 (15,000 pounds) each.

It indicates the sacrifice of the near Russian nomadic missile. He says this is the cost of millions.

But these weapons are not entirely Russian – they contain “many components of Western countries,” says DMYTRO. “It is possible (Russia) to circumvent the sanctions, but not to do anything is not an option,” he added.

Donald Trump seems to have lost his patience with President Vladimir Putin. After early efforts in the rapprochement between the United States and Russia, the US President has now threatened to strengthen sanctions on the Kremlin unless Russia agreed to a ceasefire in Ukraine by Friday.

Trump said Secondary penalties will enter into force On that day, it affects any country trading with Russia. It has already imposed an additional 25 % tariff on India to buy Russian oil. The American envoy Steve Witkeov Putin met In Moscow on Wednesday for talks before the deadline waving on the horizon.

Therefore, if President Trump chooses to impose more sanctions on the Kremlin, will it be enough to force Russia to change the path in this war? Dymtro believes that hitting Russian oil and gas exports can have a major economic impact.

“We will not be able to stop him with a set of our fingers, but we need to do this, we need to act,” he says. There is hope that President Trump will act.

Kharkiv, just 30 kilometers from the Russian border, carried many strikes throughout the war. Thousands of buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Throughout the region, nearly 3,000 civilians were killed, 97 of their children.

Police, Colonel Sirhi Bolvinov, shows me a burning shell from the police headquarters where he used to work. In 2022, a Russian strike killed three of its officers, as well as six civilians. It indicates the opening of the gap in the wall where the missiles entered. He says that the Russian tactics have not changed. “Russia is trying to strike and kill the largest possible number of civilians.”

Colonel Bolvinov’s job is to investigate every civilian death. It does not leave any stone without intercourse. He has 1000 men and women working with him, and now dispersed in the offices of the basement all over the city. They are doing the strenuous forensic medicine to build a criminal case against officials.

Pictures of Russian military officers who have been linked to specific walls – required – are dressed.

In another building, the crime scene investigators are conducting DNA tests to determine the latest injuries – Ukrainian civilians who were killed in a Russian missile attack during their water queue. Colonel Bolvinov shows me clips of the strike – charred bodies are unknown to the ground.

“It is difficult to do this work, but it is extremely important to do future justice for us, for the Ukrainian people,” he says. A three -dimensional computer image of a mass grave in Isium shows me, where more than 400 bodies have been discovered. “Some cases leave a scar on all of us, and we will never forget this shock,” he says.

Colonel Bolvinov says he wants to see an end to this war. He hopes to increase President Trump’s pressure on President Putin. But the police chief does not want peace at any cost. He says, “Peace is without justice, not a truly peace.” Even if it is possible to agree to a ceasefire, it will still not treat the wounds of most Ukrainian people.

In a cemetery outside Kharkiv, there is another reminder of the cost of war: the ranks of the increasing Ukrainian soldiers. Each grave is characterized by blue and gold for the national flag. Silence is only broken here with their voice, which is flying in the wind.

In the vicinity, in the civil section of the cemetery, the mother and her family put flowers on the grave of their daughter. Sofia was only 14 years old when a Russian sliding bomb took her life last year. She was sitting on a garden seat in Kharkiv, and enjoying the warm summer in the afternoon with a friend.

I ask her mother, Yulia, whether President Trump’s increasing pressure on Russia can bring any rest, but she is not optimistic.

“These conversations were already continuing for a long time,” she told me.

“But so far there are no results … Hope is fading.”