In the Kharkiv region (north-east), Ukrainian forces say they have taken over thousands of square kilometers from Russian forces this month. But in the city of Kupiansk, split in two by the Oskil River, their enemy clings.
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On the west bank, reconquered by the Ukrainian army, propaganda signs hung by Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, are still visible above shops with gutted windows, while artillery fire is regular hear, noted AFP journalists.
The Kharkiv region, bordering Russia, was partially occupied by Moscow from the start of the invasion launched on February 24. But at the beginning of September, the Ukrainians pushed back the Russians there thanks to a counter-offensive.
At Koupiansk, a railway junction, kyiv’s troops are still fighting: the Russians are entrenched on the other bank, where most of the clashes take place.
On Monday, a flood of civilians sought to flee the bombed city there and where water and electricity have been missing for a week, according to residents.
“It’s impossible to stay where we used to live. There was shooting (…) every hour,” says Lioudmila, 56, who braved the fighting to cross the river from the east bank to the relative safety of the west bank. “It’s very hard there,” she says.
“There has been no light, no electricity, for a week. No water,” Rouslan, a 49-year-old former policeman, told AFP.
Most of the fire heard Monday came from Ukrainian tanks and artillery, but as a small unit of soldiers from kyiv advanced towards a bridge painted in the red-white-blue colors of Russia, a violent exchange of rockets and shell burst.
Ukrainian soldiers took cover under a gutted brick building, as a plume of smoke rose into the sky in the distance. Nearby, a sign proclaims: “We are with Russia. A nation”.
Military experts believe that a Ukrainian reconquest of Kupyansk, which had some 58,000 pre-war inhabitants, would make it more difficult to supply Russian forces deployed further south to protect their gains in the Donbass industrial basin, the president’s priority strategic objective. Russian Vladimir Putin.
Kupyansk is also a road crossing point of the Oskil River, and several of its bridges have been damaged in the fighting.
A bearded Ukrainian doctor riding a quad, he says is the best vehicle for negotiating cracked and twisted bridges, told AFP he brought back an injured civilian from the other side, his third in two days.
As families cower at the side of the road on the west bank of the city waiting for transportation, a Ukrainian tank on a small hill fires shells over their homes, targeting Russians in the east from the city.
“The Ukrainians are getting closer, but there are still Russian troops in some parts of the city,” confirms Olena Glushko, a 33-year-old resident, before adding: “It’s just terrifying. It’s horrible.”
Ukrainian troops are now ubiquitous in the city, speeding into rebuilt civilian vehicles or marching in line with sacks of supplies.
When Olena first saw them after six months of Russian occupation, she was devastated. “I wanted to burst into tears and laugh at the same time,” she says.