Authorities have denied journalists access to the front line and only certain images posted on social media by Ukrainian soldiers are allowed to be published. The result: an impression that Ukraine is effortlessly pushing Russian forces back from territory they have controlled for more than six months.
The truth, inevitably for a war zone, is much less clear. CNN was granted exclusive access to the city of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, just a day after photos emerged showing soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag on the roof of the city’s municipal building. Far from being a city under full Ukrainian control, CNN found a city they are still fiercely fighting for.
On the edge of town, Vasil — who declined to give his last name for security reasons — tells us that for days they have been “shelled and shelled” in the ongoing battle in Kharkiv. On Sunday afternoon, the dull thud of incoming artillery fire was punctuated by the rarer burst of incoming fire. Russian forces were still fighting for Kupiansk, a town vital to their supply lines, connecting their military base across the northern border in Russia’s Belgorod with Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and front lines. of Donbass.
Ukraine’s top military commander General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi claimed on Sunday that the country’s army had recaptured more than 3,000 square kilometers (about 1,158 square miles) of territory since the beginning of the month, much of it believed to be in the Kharkiv region. On the ground, however, the fate of Kupiansk appears far from certain, indicating that maintaining Ukrainian control over newly liberated territory in the region could prove difficult. Further west, calm has been fully restored in some villages, such as Zaliznychne in the Kharkiv region, which was liberated last week as the eastern counteroffensive picked up speed. There, the struggle seems to have been much less arduous. “I didn’t even expect it would be so fast,” says 66-year-old Oleksandr Verbytsky, who watched the Russians retreat. “I went to the store and when I came back, everyone was running. The Russians drove through the cemetery to leave. Can you imagine?” Near Zaliznychne, Ukrainian investigators had arrived, alerted to possible evidence of a war crime. After the horrors unearthed north of Kiev — as in Bukha — last April, when Russian troops retreated after just a month of occupation, Ukrainian authorities know very well what to look for.
War crimes investigators were among the group of officials who arrived at a ruined house to hear from Maria, who was due to bury his neighbor and friend last February, days after Russia crossed the Ukrainian border. “I noticed that the door was ajar for days,” says Maria Grigorova. “And when I checked to see if they were alive or maybe injured, I saw that they were cold, and then I noticed two holes in Constantine’s forehead.” Locals in Zaliznychne describe the occupation as “terrifying” and although a sense of normalcy has returned, the fear of the return of Russian troops still hangs in the air. Serhii Bolvinov, head of the investigation department of the Kharkiv region police, who said they were recording apparent war crimes “in almost every village”. “You never knew what the Russians were thinking,” Verbytsky says. “I made sure I never spoke to them because I knew they could hit me, so when they passed me I just turned away.”