By Volodymyr Pavlov and Vitalii Hnidyi
KUPIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) – Yuliia Baibak could not bear another Russian air strike on her neighbourhood before complying with the order to evacuate her parents from the besieged Ukrainian city of Kupiansk.
A plea for mass evacuation was also issued on Friday for the city of Pokrovsk further south, a key target of Russian forces advancing westward through the Donetsk region.
Baibak, who was with her parents, was among the thousands slated for evacuation from Kupiansk and several surrounding settlements as Russian troops bore down on the strategic hub in Kharkiv region.
“I came (to my parents) all white, crying and scared, and said, ‘Either we leave or they’ll kill us all here,'” she said on Thursday while helping her wheelchair-bound mother to a car.
Kyiv’s troops reclaimed Kupiansk six months after its capture by Russia in its February 2022 invasion, but it has come under increasing attack as Moscow steps up an offensive along the sprawling eastern front.
In the Donetsk region further south, Kremlin troops are advancing village-by-village to threaten other key transit hubs that supply much of Ukraine’s eastern forces.
The head of Pokrovsk’s military administration, Serhiy Dobrak, urged residents to evacuate as there was no way to provide essential services, the RBK Ukraine media outlet reported.
“It is already clear that there will be no heating in the city,” Dobrak was quoted as saying. “I appeal to city residents — if you see dragon’s teeth (anti-tank traps) being installed nearby, do not delay, pack up and leave. It will be dangerous.”
In Kupiansk, residents interviewed by Reuters reported sleepless nights under regular Russian fire across the area, some 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
In some parts, Moscow’s troops are as close as 4 kilometres from the city limits, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Ukrainian television this week.
He said he ordered the evacuation because constant Russian shelling had rendered repairs to local electricity, heat and water too difficult.
Speaking to reporters in Kharkiv on Thursday, Syniehubov said the priority was to evacuate the entire civilian population from the left bank of the Oskil River, or around 4,000 people.
The Defence Ministry’s GUR Intelligence directorate issued a statement on Friday saying Ukrainian forces had cleared Russian troops from a village south of Kupiansk in a week-long operation. It said the village of Kruhlyakivka, was essential to the city’s defence.
(This story has been corrected to change the location of Pokrovsk to the south of Kupiansk, not north, in paragraph 2)
(Reporting by Vitalii Hnidyi and Volodymyr Pavlov; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Ron Popeski and Diane Craft)
