Russian offensive and civilian flight — what's happening in Kupyansk?

Since the end of September, Kupyansk has been closed - it is no longer possible to enter or leave the city. Russian soldiers are now stationed there, whom the Ukrainian army is trying to push back. Rescuers who could get people to safety are no longer able to enter the city. Frightened residents are fleeing on their own, on their own.

That's what 75-year-old Valentina, who lived on the northern outskirts of Kupyansk, did. With the help of a fellow citizen, she managed to reach the village of Shevchenkovo ​​in the west, from where volunteers transported her on to Kharkiv. We met her there, at a transit center for displaced people.

Valentina says she decided to flee after two Russian soldiers came to her yard looking for their comrades in the city. One of them threatened her with a grenade. "You could see that the Russian was very drunk. Then he asked where the Ukrainian soldiers were. I said, 'There are neither yours nor ours here. Only old people live here,'" she remembers.

For four months now, nothing has been working in the city – no communications, no electricity, no water, no gas, says Valentina. All the shops are closed. “The shelling is terrible. Everything is destroyed. Everything is black and burned,” she says, “and the drones are flying… When they see someone, they first hover in place, then swoop down on the victim. Many people are dying.”

Volunteers are now taking Valentina to a shelter, where several hundred internally displaced people live. But the old woman is already grieving for her home. "It's hard for people like us to give up our house, yard and garden. The harvest was good this year. I brought everything into the basement and locked it up, as it should be. But will it remain intact? Well, that's the question," she says sadly.

Help from social workers

Since September, the number of requests for evacuation from the Kupyansk district has increased - more than a hundred applications are received daily at the "Coordination Center for Humanitarian Aid", which is responsible for implementing the evacuations, says the head of the campaign, Bohdan Jahno. "Unfortunately, many people wait until the last minute. The number of requests that we cannot process is growing every day. And when people try to make their way on their own, they can become targets for drones."

According to UNHCR, there are currently around 3,8 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine, while the Ukrainian authorities put the figure at 4,6 million. These are Ukrainians who have fled Russian aggression to safer parts of Ukraine since 2014 - after the annexation of Crimea and the start of fighting in the east of the country. Currently, they are mostly pensioners who cannot afford to rent apartments and live in collective accommodation. But this has not solved their problems, because without help they find it difficult to cope with everyday life, complete administrative tasks or go to the doctor.

The state can assign them a social worker, but the person must prove that they live alone and provide the appropriate documents. “A lot of help is needed, and the state cannot provide it. The country is in a state of war,” explains Elvira Sejdova-Bohoslovska, who heads the project at the “Coordination Center for Humanitarian Aid.”

In several homes, social workers take care of the most vulnerable. They are funded by the international humanitarian organization "Help for Self-Help", "so that these people feel cared for and loved", emphasizes Sejdova-Bohoslovska. "Social workers help them overcome trauma. And that is important."

The atmosphere in the home in Kharkiv is gloomy. Laundry hangs on the balconies, and the smell of cooked meat wafts from the kitchen: social worker Viktoria is cooking borscht for a seriously injured man from the Kharkiv region. She has been busy since morning – shopping and doing laundry. Viktoria loves her job. “I know these people have no one to help them,” she says. But the support project cannot cover the entire home – two social workers are caring for ten elderly women.

"Street of Life" in Kupjansk

When Viktorija has a day off, she helps other residents of the home. She also visits 88-year-old Mikola to hear stories from his life. The man has poor eyesight and hearing, but enjoys her attention.

Mikola lived in the village of Velika Shapkivka, north of Kupyansk. He always walked to the town to visit his 65-year-old son. “Suddenly, a drone started following me. I spread my arms and said, ‘Come on, shoot!’ But it circled, destroying a house and a farm. I was spared,” he recalls.

In August, he was transferred to a hospital in Chuguyev, because there was no longer a hospital in Kupyansk. After his discharge, it was too dangerous for him to return home. Volunteers took Mikola to a home in Kharkiv. “At first, they didn’t tell me the truth. No, I’m not angry, they only wanted the best,” he says. But Mikola couldn’t take it anymore, and two weeks ago he took a bus to Kupyansk district and walked to his village to get clothes. “I packed a full bag – two jackets, shirts, trousers. As much as I could. And a backpack,” he says. On the way, he got tangled in barbed wire and injured himself.

Now Mikola lives alone in one room and is keeping a second bed for his son, who is still in Kupyansk. He has not had any contact with him for a month, and that is why he desperately wants to return to Kupyansk. “Now there are six-meter-high poles there, and anti-drone nets across the road. They call that road ‘Life Street’. You have to go there, there is no other way,” says Mikola. But Viktoria forbids him. “I want to go there. And if I get killed, so be it,” says Mikola, barely holding back tears.