KYIV (Reuters) – Russian shelling killed a 45-year-old man and wounded at least one other person in the northeastern Ukrainian town of Kupiansk on Tuesday morning, Ukrainian officials said.
The town in the Kharkiv region was seized by Moscow soon after Russia’s invasion 18 months ago, recaptured by Kyiv last September, and under frequent fire again as Moscow tries to hit back in the northeast.
Some residents remain in the town, but regional authorities have ordered a mandatory evacuation of civilians from near the Kupiansk front because of the difficult situation.
Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said the man killed on Tuesday was a guard at a meat processing plant that was hit in the latest shelling. The prosecutor general’s office said a 67-year-old man had also been hurt during the shelling.
Reuters could not verify the situation in the town, or reports from the battlefield.
Kupiansk was home to about 27,000 people before the war and is a rail hub about 100 km (62 miles) east of the regional capital, Kharkiv. Losing the town a second time would be a considerable blow to Kyiv’s battlefield momentum.
Russian forces are trying to advance in the front as Kyiv continues a counteroffensive in the east and south that it began in early June.
Ukrainian troops have been making slow progress against Russian minefields and trenches blocking a southern push intended to reach the Sea of Azov and split Russian forces.
Media have reported on a meeting this month of NATO military chiefs and Ukraine’s top general on resetting Ukraine’s military strategy, and Ukraine hopes its fighters have now broken through the most difficult line of Russian defences in the south.
In the latest battlefield updates, the Ukrainian military said its troops had had some “success” in the direction of the village of Verbove in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, but gave no details.
It said the situation on the northern border with Russian ally Belarus was under control but “provocations and sabotage” could not be ruled out at the frontier during joint military exercises in Belarus next month.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
