UKRAINE, KUPIANSK, May 23 — At about 9:20 a.m., Russian troops dropped an aerial bomb on Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast, injuring two men aged 60 working at the municipal utility company, reported Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv Oblast. 

Both have been hospitalized. About an hour later, Syniehubov said that one of the workers died at the hospital, “doctors did all that was possible, but the man died.” 

Kupiansk, a logistics hub in the eastern part of Kharkiv Oblast, has been one of the targets of Russian assaults since the beginning of the full-scale war. 

Russia occupied it in 2022, and Ukrainian troops liberated the city during an autumn counteroffensive that year. Russian troops have renewed efforts to capture the city in 2024, capturing the land on the left bank of the Oskil River. 

Recently, Russia ramped up assaults on all sections of the frontline, including in the Kharkiv Oblast—near Kupiansk and Vovchansk (north of Kharkiv), according to the border guards, Russian troops don’t have any successes. 

A week ago, on the left bank of Oskil in Kupiansk, 98 people continued to live without communications or a way to repair them, and 1,200 people lived on the right bank there—they needed to be evacuated. 

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