After enduring months under Russian control last year, residents like Antonina Sanina are now abandoning the city as fears of a “Bakhmut 2.0” intensify following renewed Russian assaults.

In a heartbreaking turn of events, many people who stayed in Kupiansk during last year’s Russian occupation are now fleeing once again due to renewed violence. Antonina Sanina, 75, spent two nights hiding in her apartment’s basement as Russian artillery targeted the city, prompting her to abandon her home. Having already endured six months of occupation in 2022, she could no longer tolerate the persistent bombardment. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said after being evacuated by local volunteers.

Antonina described the constant terror she faced while sheltering in the cellar with eight neighbors, as Russian forces mistakenly targeted what they believed to be a Ukrainian military barracks. “You could barely sleep. It would be on and off. Then you’d just wake up and you wouldn’t know – was that an actual hit or was it a dream?” she recalled. The attacks are no longer just a fear—they have become deadly. Just a day before she left, one civilian was killed and 11 others wounded in an artillery strike on the city center.

This exodus comes after an unexpected shift in the frontline. The Ukrainian counteroffensive, launched earlier in June, had been aiming to put Russian forces on the backfoot. However, by August, Russian troops launched a counterattack around Kupiansk, located 65 miles east of Kharkiv. The sudden advance caught Ukrainian forces off guard, causing the front lines to shift by two miles. Russian shelling from positions several miles away has resumed, as it did last year.

In response to the escalating danger, local authorities ordered the evacuation of Kupiansk and surrounding territories, home to over 10,000 residents. This area had been liberated just a year ago. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s land forces, acknowledged the severity of the situation, calling it “complicated” and emphasizing the challenges facing local defenses.