Ukrainian defenses along the Donbas front are continuing to collapse. In October, Russia swallowed nearly 310 miles (500km) of Ukrainian territory including more than 15 sq miles around Kupiansk, the Guardian reported yesterday. Two-thirds of these losses of territory have been in the neighboring Donetsk region. Ukraine’s southern sector there is close to collapse.
Kupiansk’s military-civilian mayor, Andriy Besedin, described the situation on the eastern side of the Oskil River–the Russians are approaching it from the east–as “critical.” He said 1,400 people were refusing to evacuate from their homes, despite having no electricity, water or gas. Most were elderly people. They were not pro-Russian, Besedin insisted, but simply unwilling to move out or listen to anxious relatives. “We are going flat to flat and driving around with loudspeakers. We say: ‘Please leave. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow,’” he said. “The pensioners think the Russians won’t hurt them. We tell them the situation is different from 2022 and that they will get killed.”
