Video thumbnail for War in Ukraine: Kharkiv opera defies Russian bombardment

War in Ukraine: Kharkiv opera defies Russian bombardment

Mar 19, 2026
Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, is just 30 kilometres from Russia and suffers almost daily bombardment from across the border. But as the years of war have gone by, the city’s cultural institutions have adapted in order to keep working despite the dangers. The huge national opera and ballet theatre in the city centre stages regular performances. Most recently, to coincide with the four-year anniversary of the invasion, it revived a production last performed on the 23rd of February 2022. FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reports.
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