Kupiansk: As Moscow prepares for tomorrow’s huge military parade to mark 80 years since the Soviet Union’s victory over Germany, there is little to celebrate in the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, which remains under almost constant attack from Russian troops.
I’ve reported regularly from the frontline of Kupiansk in the northeastern region of Kharkiv over the last couple of years, working with various Human Rights Defenders risking their lives to help others — medics bringing lifesaving support to the vulnerable, journalists documenting war crimes, and volunteers from Kharkiv city evacuating civilians wanting to leave.
Yesterday I was there again with the Rosa Na Ruke evacuation team to take some elderly people and their belongings back to the relative safety of Kharkiv city, about 75 miles away.
Kupiansk is about 30 miles from the Russian border, and looks like the frontline battlefield it is: houses everywhere are smashed from the constant bombardments, very few people are left here, and the streets are eerily quiet in the moments between the loud explosions.
It’s overcast and raining when we go, good rescuing weather as it’s harder for the Russian drones to follow us. Even though we drive a van clearly marked as a humanitarian vehicle this is no guarantee of safety – one of the team, Tigran Galustyan, was killed by a Russian drone in October 2024 in another clearly-marked humanitarian van.
Kupiansk isn’t entirely deserted, and occasionally you see someone in the distance, but there are very few people left here. Like other frontline communities, dogs are everywhere in the streets, left behind by those fleeing the war. The evacuation volunteers bring dog food on these trips for them.
We stop to collect a woman living in an apartment block. Her place is up seven flights of stairs, and we carry her belongings (including a fridge and washing machine) down into the van. We work quickly and efficiently — the longer we are there the more dangerous it is, and there is the constant crack and rumble of various ordnance around us.
We move on, and pick up some others, and cram the van full of whatever we can fit in – clothes, tins of food, vacuum cleaners, microwaves and various everyday household things shoved into boxes. This is an extremely dangerous place to visit, and even more dangerous to live. These seem to be the last people left in their neighborhoods, and they are leaving behind their homes, perhaps for a very long time.
They’re unlucky to be living in a militarily important place. Russian soldiers took over the city in the early days of the February 2022 invasion before being forced out by the Ukrainian army seven months later. But since then the threat of reoccupation has intensified, with Russian forces making slow but steady gains towards the city over the last year.
The Russian army is creeping towards Kupiansk, trying to encircle the city, and its soldiers are only two miles away. It has a key railway junction and seizing the city back again would give the Russian army control over key supply lines, and open a path towards Kharkiv itself, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
This month alone Russia has intensified attacks on the city, launching air raids and killing and injuring civilians with large and small missiles. Despite serious attempts over many months to take Kupiansk, Ukraine’s military has so far held out against the onslaught.
Meanwhile, the volunteers who evacuate the locals continue with their life-saving work, despite the extreme dangers. This is Human Rights Defender work at its best.
