Ukrainian troops recaptured almost all of Kharkiv in a lightning counterattack, but in the city of Kopyansk — which is split in two by the Oskal River — Russian forces are fighting for control.
In Ukraine’s recent victory in the rail hub of Kapiansk, billboards erected by President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party still cling to battered shopfronts, while shells whistle overhead.
The Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine was the initial target of Russia’s offensive in February this year, and Kyiv’s counteroffensive this month was hailed as a potential turning point in the war.
In the past two weeks, Ukraine has pushed the Russians back from the countryside around the regional capital Kharkiv and liberated most of the villages of Kupyansk.
They have not yet accomplished the symbolic feat of driving Russia out of the entire Kharkiv region and back into Donetsk, which the Kremlin insists has been its primary goal up until now.
On Monday, a steady stream of civilians fled Kopyansk seeking transport from shellfire and what locals said was a week-long failure of water and electricity supplies.
“It was impossible to stay where we were,” said Lyudmila, 56, who braved a constant barrage of shelling to cross the river from the disputed east bank to the relative safety of the west.
“There were fires not only every day but literally every hour. It’s very difficult over there on the other side of the river.”
Most of the noise is from Ukrainian tanks and artillery fire.
But — just as a small unit of Ukrainian infantry moved toward the bridge, painted in Russia’s red, white and blue national colors — there was a fierce exchange of rocket and artillery fire.
- Ukraine is getting closer –
Ukrainian soldiers took cover, taking cover under a ruined brick building and a plume of smoke billowing in the distance.
Nearby, not yet torn down, a propaganda poster read: “We are with Russia. One nation.”
Because Kopyansk is a rail hub, some military analysts say its capture would make it difficult to supply Russian forces deployed further south to defend their increasingly fragile gains in the Donbass.
It is also a road crossing point for Oskal, and many of the city’s bridges have been destroyed in the fighting.
A bearded Ukrainian medic on a quad bike — a vehicle he noted was perfect for negotiating broken and twisted bridges — said he had brought a wounded civilian back from the other side. This is their third incident in two days.
As families huddled on the side of the road on the western edge of the city waited for a lift, a Ukrainian tank on a low hill in the west of the city opened fire on their homes, targeting the Russians to the east.
“Ukraine is coming closer, but there are still Russian soldiers in some parts of the city,” said 33-year-old Olena Glushko. “Just awful, awful. It’s awful.”
Ukrainians are now a constant sight in the town, speeding in converted civilian vehicles or marching in packs of goods.
But when Olena saw them for the first time six months after the Russian occupation, she was so overwhelmed that: “I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time.”
