"Kupiansk’s fading hope mirrors Ukraine’s frontline city struggles"

Kupiansk: A Frontline City Under Siege

Lyubov Lobunets, 77, fled her home in the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk in August after it was struck by a Russian explosion.

“I was in a five-story building,” she said from a displacement center in nearby Kharkiv. “I don’t know if it was a missile or a bomb, but it started a fire. When the flames reached my floor, I was trapped because the door was broken and I couldn’t get out.”

The Ukrainian military rescued her, but by then, most of Kupiansk—once home to 27,000 people—had already left. “A few shops were open in the months before I left, but in that final month, almost everything shut down. All the social services had evacuated,” she recalled.

While attention often focuses on the Donbas region further south, Kupiansk, situated on the Oskil River in northern Kharkiv, has endured a prolonged decline under relentless Russian attacks. Its slow destruction over two years reflects the fate of many frontline Ukrainian cities, steadily eroded by Russia’s slow but devastating advance.

The small market that once sold dried fish, honey, and vegetables is gone. Houses on the hillside lie in ruins. The fields near the river are pockmarked by shell craters.

Still, Lobunets resisted leaving as long as she could. “I worked as a nurse, and my pension is very small,” she said. “I was afraid of where I’d go and how I’d survive.”

Even recently, some of her friends stayed despite evacuation orders, even as fighting spread to the city’s outskirts. Most who remain now are clustered near the sports stadium.

“Friends called me after climbing to the top floor to get a signal,” Lobunets said. “They could see destroyed buildings and fires burning across the city.”

Kupiansk was occupied early in Russia’s full-scale invasion but liberated in September 2022, largely intact as Russian forces retreated. The devastation came later, as Moscow launched a renewed offensive, bombing the city from the air and shelling it with artillery. Russian troops now hold positions on the west bank of the Oskil, partially encircling the city.

When *CuriosityNews* spoke with Kupiansk’s mayor, Andrii Besedin, two years ago, he was still in his office downtown. Now based in Kharkiv, he has been unable to return since June.

“The situation in Kupiansk is very difficult. It’s on the front line. The Russians are trying to take it—they attack every day,” he said. “They put up flags at the city’s edge and claim it’s theirs, but it remains under Ukrainian control.”

Today, he added, no buildings are undamaged, and nothing functions. “There is no gas, no electricity,” he said.