The Ukrainian authorities called on Thursday to evacuate civilians from Kupiansk and other towns in the Kharkiv region (northeast) before the advance of Russian troops who launched an offensive towards positions that Kiev had recaptured in September.
“Taking into account the difficult security situation and the increase in shelling (…), they have the possibility of being evacuated to a safer place,” the Kupiansk authorities said on Telegram.
The inhabitants can resettle in the city of Kharkov, some 90 kilometers to the west, from where they can be evacuated to safer regions. “Do not neglect your safety or that of your loved ones,” the Ukrainian authorities added.
The Ukrainian army indicated in the afternoon that “the situation remains difficult, but remains under control.”
“The Russians are trying to impose themselves and penetrate our defenses,” the spokesman for the Ukrainian army in the eastern sector of the front added on Telegram.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced for its part that the army “improved its positions” on the front line near Kupiansk, after having reported advances in this area during the week.
“It seems that the Russians are laying waste to places in the Kupiansk area,” said Rostislav Melnikiv, an academic at Kharkiv University. “People are in danger of losing their lives, not just their homes,” he told AFP.
A resident of the village of Kivsharivka, on the outskirts of Kupiansk, said she was preparing to flee with her children, but her husband refused to leave to stay with their elderly mother. “It’s hard to leave them behind,” Anna Koresh, 36, told AFP by phone.
Ukraine began a counteroffensive in June after receiving significant military reinforcements from Western powers, but has acknowledged difficulties in advancing in the face of resistance from Russian troops that invaded the country at the end of February 2022.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian authorities reported that at least two people were killed and seven wounded in a Russian attack on Zaporizhia (south). This city, on the banks of the Dnipro River, is a strategic position, some 44 kilometers from one of the fronts of the conflict.
Nadiya, a 71-year-old resident of Zaporizhia, told AFP on Thursday that she had gone to bed when the shelling began. “There was a ‘bang’. There was black smoke. Glass everywhere. I started screaming,” she said.
Ukraine multiplied in recent weeks attacks with aerial or naval drones against Russian territories or controlled by Russian troops, as well as in the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
In Russia’s Briansk region, near the border with Ukraine, two people were killed and two wounded in a shelling that authorities blamed on Ukrainian forces.
Russia further announced that it shot down 11 Ukrainian drones near Crimea and others heading towards Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on July 30 that “war” was coming to Russia.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
