“Russian soldiers were captured without a fight”

It was a small town of absolutely nothing, in the far east of Ukraine, sober, charming, with its factories, its 27,000 inhabitants and its river. In February, the Russian invasion made Kupiansk a strategic point, which today is marked in red on staff maps. A railway hub on the border between the two countries, the city became, in fact, a gateway for the supply of Russian troops on the northern front of the Donbass, the border of which begins barely twenty kilometers.

In the autumn rains, the Ukrainian counterattack raised its flag in the city’s main square. “The Kharkiv region is under our control 94% and the restored area is almost completely cleared”Says a Ukrainian deputy commander of a base near Izyum, nicknamed “The Diver” (“Frog”). this is “roughly” It makes all the difference. Around Kobyansk, Russian soldiers continue to fight fiercely, while in other places they quickly retreat. And the official Ukrainian visits that were to celebrate the victory there are postponed day by day.

Near the town hall, residents remember that the city fell without a bullet, at the beginning of the Russian invasion. This will prevent destruction., had endorsed the mayor, elected from a pro-Kremlin party, and obediently welcomed the inhabitants. The city’s strategic location soon made it a Russian administrative and military base in the region. All the planned ampersands seemed in place: propaganda posters, open registrations for a Russian passport, the distribution of telephone chips or the payment of a bonus to pensioners. Only Moscow TV channels were allowed.

The sound of battle is approaching

Dmytro, a mechanic, regularly took one of the two daily shuttle trips to the nearby Russian Federation. There, finding work seemed easier to him. Today, in Kobyansk, passers-by who see him talking to strangers turn away from him, their faces closed, hostile and frightened at the same time. At the camping table, Galina sells pasta, shampoo and matches. The ruble and the hryvnia (Russian and Ukrainian currencies) are accepted. It was quiet with the Russians.as you say. ‘No one was against’Dmytro continues to raise his voice due to the noise of the fighting in the surroundings.

“On TV, I saw …,” Dmytro begins. The farmer interrupts him: “To see what is happening, I look out the window, not the TV. »

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