The third fight of the Ukrainian Kharkiv counteroffensive, which lasted from September 8, 2022, to September 16, 2022, was the Battle of Kupiansk. The conflict was described in a Financial Times piece from September 28 as "The 90km trek that changed the trajectory of the war in Ukraine." [13]
Context Main articles: Ukrainian Kharkiv counteroffensive in 2022 and Russian conquest of Kharkiv Oblast
Informational supplement The Balakliia and Shevchenkove battles
From 27 February 2022 to 10 September 2022, Russian forces held Kupiansk.
[14] Hennadiy Matsehora, a member of the Opposition Platform—For Life party and the mayor of Kupiansk, surrendered the city to the Russian Army in exchange for a halt to hostilities after the Russians threatened to take the city by force. This was despite the fact that the Ukrainian army had destroyed a railway bridge to halt the Russian advance three days earlier. The following day, Matsehora was charged with treason by the Ukrainian government. [15] [16] Ukrainian officials detained Matsehora on February 28, 2022. [17] Later, Kupiansk was de facto the headquarters of the military-civilian government of Kharkiv, which was supported by Russia.
Battle
The attack on a Russian military facility at Kupiansk on September 5 allegedly resulted in the deaths of 100 Russian servicemen, according to the Ukrainian general staff before the conflict.
[18]
Russian occupation authorities in the city asserted that Russian forces started to defend Kupiansk on September 8, 2022, following a massive Ukrainian counteroffensive that captured over 20 villages in just a few days.
[19]
On September 9, Ukrainian forces from the Kraken Regiment invaded Kupiansk's outskirts and took back the city hall by the following morning.
[21] The town's core was severely devastated by fighting. Later on that day, Kupiansk's liberation was declared by Ukrainian authorities. [22]
After Ukraine retook Kupyansk, Matsehora's pro-Russian successor as mayor, Maxim Gubin, had departed for Russia.
Russian forces retreated to Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, a town on the eastern bank of the Oskil River, and blew up the bridge that connected the two.
[23] Around a thousand pigs were killed when Russian forces bombarded the nearby meat plant in Kupiansk during the fight for the neighbouring city. [24] The settlement was retaken by Ukrainian forces on September 16. [23] Russian soldiers' dead were left lying around Kupiansk and Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi in the immediate aftermath of the conflict. [25]
Aftermath
Russian forces have been bombarding Kupiansk since the towns were freed by the Ukrainians.
[26] On September 13, two civilians were murdered in the town's initial attacks. [27] One person was hurt by airstrikes the following day. [28] Five individuals were hurt by shelling on September 18 in Kupiansk. [29] After Russian shelling of the city two days later, two civilians died and five were hurt. [30] On September 22, shelling resulted in the injuries of a mom and two kids. [31] Following a Russian attack on a church in Kupiansk on September 27, five individuals suffered injuries. [32]
A doctor was killed and a nurse was hurt by Russian shelling of a hospital in Kupiansk on October 3.
[33] On October 5, an airstrike hurt one woman. [34]
On September 26, a convoy of residents fleeing the nearby villages of Kurylivka and Pishchane were shelled by Russian forces, resulting in the deaths of 26 civilians. In Russian administrative buildings located all around the city, evidence of torture was found. [35]