Local authorities, taking into account the critical security situation, have ordered the mass evacuation of residents from the almost deserted area of Kupiansk, which will affect several dozen villages, writes the news agency Reuters.
The governor of the north-eastern Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, informed on the Telegram that a total of 409 families with 601 children from 27 settlements have been ordered to evacuate. Another regional official, in turn, reported about 40 settlements to be evacuated.
Russian forces have been attacking near Kupiansk for several months
and are trying to advance. The city is considered an important point for advancing further west. At the beginning of the war in 2022, the Russians briefly occupied the city, but Kyiv later managed to recapture it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in early October that Ukrainian forces were defending key points on the front line, including Kupiansk. Ukraine is also launching a counterattack in the south, near Dobropillia.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow has a strategic advantage across the entire front line. Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksander Syrskyi said that the length of the front line is now over 1,200 kilometers.
Read also: US may approve Tomahawk delivery to Ukraine