Thousands of people march through the streets of Ukraine’s second largest city amid tensions with Russia

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Ukraine’s second-largest city on Saturday, holding banners that said “Kharkiv is Ukraine” and “stop Russian aggression,” as the country readied for a possible Russian military strike.

Following Russia’s massing of tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine’s borders, weeks of talks between the West and Moscow have yielded no breakthrough.

Moscow has denied planning an attack on Ukraine, but has requested security guarantees, including a ban on Ukraine joining NATO.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named Kharkiv, an eastern industrial city 42 kilometres (26 miles) from Russia’s border, as a potential Russian target, however his spokesman later clarified that he was speaking hypothetically.

Demonstrators in Kharkiv sung the national anthem and carried Ukrainian flags, as well as banners of allies who have backed Kyiv, such as the US, the UK, and the EU.

“People took to the streets to show that Kharkiv is a Ukrainian city that we would not give up,” said Nina Kvitko, a Kharkiv resident.