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

Since Russia launched its large -scale invasion of Ukraine, Western nations have imposed large -scale sanctions on the aggressor, with the aim of styling its war effort.

But in the field here in Ukraine, these sanctions seem to have a limited impact.

Just outside Kharkiv, in a secret place, there is a collection of twisted metal remains of attacks in and around the city. It is a savagery of wilderness – the remains of many Russian bombs, rockets, missiles and drones have used Kharkiv in the past three and a half years.

“This is the material proof with which we, as a prosecutors, will prove Russia’s guilt in the commerce of war crimes,” said Dymtro Chubenko of the Kharkiv region’s prosecutor’s office. Each piece of rocket and drone here has been carefully collected and analyzed.

Dmytro shows me one of the last editions – a Russian version of Iranian Shaheed drone. Russia recently dismissed hundreds of these suicide bomber drones in the cities and cities of Ukraine. They are relatively cheap to do, he said – about $ 20,000 (£ 15,000) each.

He points to the carcass close to a Russian cruise missile. He says these millions cost millions.

But these weapons are not entirely of Russian manufacture – they contain “many components of the Western nations”, explains Dmytro. “It is possible (for Russia) to get around the sanctions, but doing nothing is not an option either,” he adds.

Donald Trump seems to have lost patience with President Vladimir Putin. After the first efforts to bring together the United States and Russia, the American president has now threatened to stimulate sanctions against the Kremlin unless Russia accepts a cease-fire in Ukraine on Friday.

Trump said secondary sanctions will also come into force that day, affecting any commercial country with Russia. He has already imposed an additional 25% rate on India for the purchase of Russian oil. American envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow on Wednesday for talks before the imminent deadline.

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

“We will not be able to stop it with a snap of our fingers, but we have to do it, we have to act,” he said. We hope that President Trump could act.

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

Police colonel Serhii Bolvinov shows me the burnt shell from the police seat in which he worked. A Russian strike in 2022 killed three of his officers as well as six civilians. He points to the gaping hole in the wall where the missiles entered. Russian tactics, he said, have not changed. “Russia is trying to hit and kill as many civilians as possible.”

The work of Colonel Bolvinov is to investigate each civil death. He leaves no stone not returned. He has 1,000 men and women who work for him, now dispersed in the subsoil offices just through the city. They carry out meticulous forensic work to build a criminal case against those responsible.

Photographs of Russian military officers who have been linked to specific attacks are plastered through the wall – the sought after.

In another building, investigators in crime are carried out DNA tests to identify the last victims – Ukrainian civilians killed in a Russian rocket attack while lining up to collect water. Colonel Bolvinov shows me images of Strike – unrecognizable charred bodies are on the ground.

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

Colonel Bolvinov says he wants to see the end of this war. He hopes that President Trump’s growing pressure on President Putin will work. But the police chief does not want peace at any cost. “Peace without justice is not really peace,” he says. Even if a cease-fire can be agreed, it is not for injuries of most Ukrainians.

In a cemetery outside Kharkiv is another recall of the cost of war: the ever -increasing ranks of dead Ukrainian soldiers. Each tomb is marked by the blue and gold of the national flag. Silence here is only broken by the sound that beats in the wind.

Nearby, in the civilian section of the cemetery, a mother and her family place flowers on the grave of their daughter. Sofia was only 14 years old when a Russian slippery bomb took her life last year. She was sitting on a park bench in Kharkiv, taking advantage of the hot summer afternoon with a friend.

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

“These conversations have already lasted for too long,” she told me.

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