As Russian forces mount an offensive, Ukrainians in Kupiansk concern a second occupation.

A billboard on the major entrance to town of Kupiansk illustrates the tenuous nature of Ukrainian management in a area that has change into one of the energetic elements of the 750-mile entrance line within the conflict.

“Kupiansk is Ukraine!!!” it proclaims to anybody getting into town. The different aspect of the signal, seen to these within the metropolis middle, hints at why the primary proclamation is so pressing. It exhibits an armed soldier standing in entrance of a helicopter, together with a telephone quantity and a query: “Do you have information about traitors to Ukraine?”

At the outset of the conflict, Kupiansk, solely 25 miles from the Russian border, fell to Moscow’s forces with out a struggle and remained below occupation for six months earlier than being retaken in a lightning Ukrainian thrust within the Kharkiv area within the nation’s northeast in September.

Now, nevertheless, whereas most consideration is concentrated on the most recent Ukrainian counteroffensive lots of of miles to the south, Russian forces are mounting an offensive within the north, in search of to regain these lands. Kupiansk, a strategically essential metropolis that served as a logistical middle for the Russian navy, is correct within the cross hairs, and plenty of residents say they dread the return of the forces who terrorized them for six months.

“No one can survive a second occupation,” mentioned Liudmila Sezonova, who runs a honey wholesale enterprise and mentioned she stayed house for months all through the occupation, hoping that she wouldn’t be penalized by the Russians for being a Ukrainian patriot.