Kharkiv is in the northeast. Pat is usually pretty good geographically.
I think Pat has cottoned on to the crowd that is out to accuse anyone of treason who tries to understand what Putin is doing, so he suckers them all in by paragraphs berating Putin, then in the last couple of sentences suggests that we are about to leap into the abysm. This is consistent with Pat's past attacks on our ignorant war mongering neo cons who have poked the bear and ignored he has some sharp teath.