"That's it, the end: the Russians will kill us all" VIDEO

"I came (to my parents) all pale and crying and scared and said, 'Either you leave or they're going to kill us all here,'" she said Thursday, helping her wheelchair-bound mother into a car.

Baibak and her parents are among thousands of people forced to leave Kupiansk and several surrounding settlements this week, in the face of an attack by Russian forces on the strategically important city in northeastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces retook control of Kupiansk six months after the Russians captured it in an invasion that began in February 2022, but it is under increasing attack as Moscow steps up its offensive along its long eastern front.

Further south, Russian forces are advancing village by village in the industrial region of Donetsk to threaten other key transit hubs that supply much of Ukraine's forces in the east.

Residents of Kupiansk spoken to by Reuters said they could not sleep because of regular Russian fire across the area, about 100 kilometers east of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.

In some areas, Russian forces have come within four kilometers of the city's edges, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov told Ukrainian television this week. He said he ordered the evacuation because of constant Russian shelling that has made it difficult to repair local electricity, heat and water networks.

Speaking to journalists in Kharkiv on Thursday, he said that the priority is the evacuation of the entire civilian population from the left bank of the Oskil River, that is, about 4,000 people.

Ninety-year-old Hana Zorina, who is leaving Kupiansk for the second time after returning last spring, said that at first it seemed that she would be able to live there.

"Then things got to the point where you had to say, 'That's it - the end.'

Below you can watch the Russian drone attack in Krupiansk.