Since the Ukrainian counter-offensive is moving slowly in the south and southeast, it was the Russians who went on the attack in the northeast of Kharkiv region. In recent days, Russian forces have advanced a kilometer or more towards the Ukrainian-held city of Kupyansk. This is reported by FRANCE 24 correspondent Gulliver Cragg.
Looking east from Kupyansk, one can not only see but also hear artillery battles.
“The occupied Luhansk region is over there, 15 kilometers away,” says Andrei Kanashevich, head of the Kupyansky district military department. “To the front line 8 kilometers.”
“Their artillery is hitting our villages (…) We have the Oskill River here, probably, the occupiers want to return this river, make it a front line,” he says.
In the early days of Kiev’s counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region last September, Ukrainian soldiers stood triumphantly in front of the Kupyansk administration building. But since then, the city has been anything but peaceful, reports Cragg of FRANCE 24.
Kupyansk has been shelled regularly for several months, and recently every day, and some residents are very frightened.
“I approached one of our soldiers and asked what would happen to us? And he said: “You will be the second Bakhmut,” says an elderly resident Svetlana.
City officials moved into the basement. They say they constantly have to fight Russian disinformation.
“They spread fake news to sow panic among the population,” says Vitaliy Kolesnyk, an adviser to the mayor, holding a smartphone in his hand. “Here’s a typical example: it says that the city administration is evacuating … when people read this, it seems to them that everything must be very bad.”
Mayor of Kupyansk Andrey Besedin admits that now is a difficult time.
” Yes, it’s hard. Yes, there is a build-up of Russian soldiers and equipment,” he says. “But we will deal with this and gradually win back all the captured cities. ”
In a spirit of defiance, municipal workers are cleaning up the city’s main square.
“I don’t know if it was outgoing or incoming, I can’t say,” says Alla, one of the workers, after a shell explodes in the distance. “Of course we are worried, and who wouldn’t be? But we still have to work.”
Source: France24
