AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
While much of the world's attention is focused on the war in Gaza, Russia is relentlessly pursuing its offensive in Ukraine. Renewed Western military aid has helped stall Russian advances. But as NPR's Joanna Kakissis reports from Northeastern Ukraine, the cost of delayed supplies is deeply felt in one small community.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRD CHIRPING)
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: The town of Vovchansk lies just 5 miles from the Russian border.
OLEKSII KHARKIVSKIY: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Police officer Oleksii Kharkivskiy grew up in town, fishing in the woodland ponds.
KHARKIVSKYI: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: And he says he helped evacuate his neighbors through those woods when Russian forces occupied Vovchansk in February 2022. A few months later, Ukraine recaptured the town. Only a quarter of its residents returned, and then they faced daily Russian shelling.
KHARKIVSKYI: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "We, as the police force, were there to try to give people confidence to stay," Kharkivskiy says. "I got to know everyone personally." Then in May of this year, Russian forces stormed into Vovchansk again.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Crying, non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: Once more, Kharkivskiy found himself evacuating his neighbors, including this 65-year-old grandmother who wept as she left everything behind.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Crying, non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: Kharkivskiy filmed the evacuations and posted the videos to Facebook. The battle for Vovchansk continues.
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KAKISSIS: We drive deep into the woods not far from town to the command center of the 57th brigade. The commander is Yurii Lunyov.
YURII LUNYOV: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: He said, "provisions to the front line were blocked because Russian fighter jets were dropping so many guided bombs in and around town." These bombs have pop-out wings and satellite navigation.
RODION: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: A soldier who gave his name is Rodion monitored a screen showing street fighting in Vovchansk.
RODION: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "We are rationing ammunition," he said. But the Russians have the resources to drop countless bombs, even on very small targets, like on three soldiers. The bombs are not the only challenge. Russia sends waves and waves of infantry. The brigade's artillery unit is trying to hold them back.
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KAKISSIS: We walk along a dirt road into the forest to meet the unit's wiry commander named Nur. For security reasons, he declines to give his last name.
NUR: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Nur explains that the unit lacks long-range shells.
NUR: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "If we had these," he said, "we could have fired at Russian troops before they reached Vovchansk."
Some Western military aid has now arrived on the front line. It's helped Ukrainian troops stop the Russian advance here. But there's not much left of the town of Vovchansk beyond ruins and rubble.
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KAKISSIS: Roughly 30 miles away in the city of Kharkiv, hundreds of people mourned a police officer killed during the Vovchansk evacuations. The service is held in a basement, air raid sirens blaring outside.
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KAKISSIS: The wartime administrator of Vovchansk, Tamaz Gambarshvili, limped as he walked behind the coffin.
TAMAZ GAMBARSHVILI: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "The enemy struck a place where we had set up evacuation headquarters," he said. "I got a shrapnel wound in my left thigh." Gambarshvili is in charge of relocating evacuees from Vovchansk like 79-year-old Liudmyla Kuznetsova. She now lives in what used to be a student dorm in Kharkiv.
LIUDMYLA KUZNETSOVA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "We tried so hard to stay in our home in Vovchansk," she says. "Whenever the doors and windows were blown off, we would just repair them." But she ran out of supplies, and Vovchansk ran out of time.
KUZNETSOVA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: She left at night with only the clothes on her back as her hometown burned. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Northeastern Ukraine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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