![]() She also treats trauma victims and wounded soldiers before they are sent to larger hospitals.Ĭivilians moving away from the front are required to stop in Shevchenkove to be interviewed by police and intelligence officers, who check their phones and investigate any potential ties to Russian troops. Shapovalova is based in the small town of Shevchenkove, but with no gynecologists left in Kupyansk, her patients often travel long and dangerous routes from east of the river to see her. But the effort failed, leaving the Russians in control of roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, and now it is the Russians who appear to be on the offensive as aid for Ukraine stalls in Washington and Brussels. Kyiv had hoped for similar wins when it launched another counteroffensive last summer, focusing largely in the south. Ukraine’s surprise counterattack in this region stunned the world in the fall of 2022, as Russian forces fled en masse from towns they had occupied for months with little fight. Ukraine, in turn, is beefing up its defenses. ![]() But Russia has captured the city before, and a recent assessment by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, determined that Moscow has sent soldiers to the area who appear to be “less degraded” than those posted elsewhere. The river that cuts through Kupyansk could serve as a natural defense in case of further Russian advances. “It’s very scary,” said Diana Shapovalova, 34, one of the last remaining gynecologists working in the area. On Saturday, they took control of the small settlement of Krokhmalne, southeast of the city, bringing them slightly closer to the river.Īlthough Kyiv has tried to minimize the importance of the loss, saying the village was home to only about five households before the war, the development and evacuation orders have spurred fears that Ukrainian troops are preparing to surrender even more ground. In recent months, Ukraine has urged civilians to evacuate – again – and not just from Kupyansk but also from dozens of villages to the west, a grim sign that Kyiv fears the Russians could push forward. From positions east of the Oskil River, which bisects the city, Russia never fully lost sight of its target. They are now speaking them aloud.įor months, Russia has pummeled Kupyansk, a strategic rail hub that it seized in early 2022 and that Ukraine retook seven months later. ON THE ROAD TO KUPYANSK, Ukraine – For nearly a year after Ukraine liberated towns along the war-scarred road to Kupyansk in the northeast Kharkiv region, residents hardly whispered fears of a second Russian occupation.
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