Oleksii Kharkivskyi, patrol police chief of Vovchansk, in his police car at an undisclosed location in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on May 26.
Laurel Chor for NPR
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KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine — For the past 10 weeks, a battle has raged in a small border town just five miles from Russia.
Russia’s invasion of Vovchansk was not a surprise; Russian troops had been massing along the border with northeastern Ukraine while the under-resourced and overburdened Ukrainian army awaited military aid from the United States and its Western allies.
For Oleksii Kharkivskyi, the town’s police patrol captain, it’s a real-life example of what happens without that kind of support.
“We tried to prepare,” he said. “But the Russians came in and dropped a lot of bombs.”
Kharkivskyi grew up in Vovchansk, fishing in forest ponds and hiking along the Vovcha River that bisects the town. He helped evacuate his neighbors through those woods when Russian forces occupied Vovchansk in February 2022. A few months later, Ukraine retook the town—but only a quarter of its 18,000 residents returned. They faced daily Russian shelling.
“We, as a police force, were there to try to give people the confidence to stay,” Kharkivskyi said. “I got to know people personally.”
When the Russians invaded again in early May, he found himself evacuating his neighbors, mostly elderly people, who cried as they left everything behind. He filmed the evacuation and posted the video on Facebook.
“I wanted to show people what it would be like to have a town that has no way to defend itself,” he said.
Oleksii Kharkivskyi, chief of the Vovchansk patrol police, shows videos he shot during the evacuation of civilians from Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.
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Serhii Kuzan, the leader Center for Security and Cooperation of UkraineA delay in military aid from the United States and Europe has prompted Russia to build up its military along Ukraine’s northeastern border with Russia, a defense research group in Kyiv said.
He said the offensive only began to stop after aid began trickling in and the United States allowed Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons to strike limited military targets in Russia.
“Ukrainian intelligence warned about Russia’s plans in the northeast,” Kuzan said. “The lack of ammunition and resources led to the loss of precious time.”
Defeated at the front line
Deep in the forest, not far from Vovchansk, the command center of one of the battalions of the 57th Independent Mechanized Brigade established a temporary base.
The battalion commander, Yurii Lunyov, said that at the beginning of the offensive, supply lines to the front line were blocked by Russian warplanes that continuously dropped guided bombs in and around the town. These bombs have flapping wings and satellite navigation.
Yurii Lunyov, commander of the 2nd Rifle Battalion of the 57th Brigade, poses for a photo outside a command center near Vovchansk on May 29.
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A view inside the command center of an artillery unit of the 57th Brigade in the Kharkiv region on May 29.
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A soldier in the brigade, Rodion, whose last name was not disclosed for security reasons, watched a screen in late May showing Russian and Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the streets of Vovchansk.
“We are limited in ammunition,” he said. “But the Russians have the resources to drop a lot of bombs, even on very small targets, like three soldiers.”
Rodion, a soldier of the 57th brigade, at the command center of an artillery unit in the Kharkiv region on May 29.
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Guided Bombs still a challenge But Lunyov, the battalion commander, said the Russians appeared to slow down after the United States allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to attack military targets in Russia. Those attacks, he said, “seemed to have damaged the logistics and equipment chains in Russia.”
However, Russia continued to send in waves of infantry. The brigade’s artillery unit was trying to stop them.
Deeper into the forest, along a dirt road, the unit commander, Nur, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said the unit lacked long-range artillery shells.
“If we had these,” he said, “we could have fired on the Russian army before they reached Vovchansk.”
Nur, commander of the 57th Brigade’s artillery unit, poses for a portrait at a command center in the Kharkiv region on May 29.
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Time out
Some Western military aid has now reached the front lines. It has helped the Ukrainian army hold off the Russian advance here. But little remains of the town other than rubble and ruins.
Dozens of people remain in Vovchansk, hiding in basements as Russian troops continue to attack the town. Earlier this month, soldiers and local police evacuated three children.
The evacuation was dangerous. In late May, hundreds of people mourned a police officer killed by a Russian drone during the evacuation. The memorial service was held in a basement about 30 miles from Vovchansk, in the city of Kharkiv. Outside, air raid sirens wailed.
Vovchansk’s wartime administrator, Tamaz Gambarshvili, limped as he walked behind the coffin.
“The enemy attacked the place where we set up the evacuation command post,” he said. “I was wounded by shrapnel in my left thigh.”
Gambarshvili was in charge of evacuating the evacuees from Vovchansk. Many were housed in a student dormitory now empty because of the war.
Smoke appears on the horizon in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, May 29.
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Liudmyla Kuznetsova, a 79-year-old retired bread factory accountant, said she and her family were the last to leave Vovchansk.
“Whenever the doors and windows are blown out [our home]We just need to fix them,” she said.
But she was out of supplies and Vovchansk was running out of time.
She left at night, taking only the clothes on her back because her hometown was burning.
