A Russian assault group briefly breached the outskirts of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kupiansk for the first time since Moscow’s forces withdrew in September 2022, Ukrainian officials said, signaling increased pressure on the strategic outpost.
Moscow’s forces, including soldiers disguised as Ukrainian troops, launched four waves of attacks on Wednesday but were repelled from the city, a key railway hub with a pre-war population of 26,000, according to Ukraine’s general staff.
“They partially entered the suburbs and industrial zone but were destroyed by our troops... The assaults involved heavy armored vehicles, and there were attempts to deploy infantry,” the city’s military administration chief said.
The city, now just 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the front line, has been under constant shelling, and the population has dwindled to 3,000 people, who are being urged to evacuate, the official, Andriy Besedin, told Reuters by phone.
Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the early days of their February 2022 invasion and retaken by Ukraine in a counteroffensive months later.
Russia’s military has not commented on the Kupiansk front, but Vitaly Ganchev, a Moscow-installed official, said Russian forces were gaining a foothold on Kupiansk’s outskirts.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.
Ukraine’s outnumbered troops have been losing ground in the east for months, while trying to hold the line against what Kyiv says is a 50,000-strong force in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine says Russia also plans to launch a push in the southeast soon.
The Kupiansk thrust, involving 15 pieces of hardware such as tanks and armored combat vehicles, according to Ukraine’s general staff, was an attempt to expand offensive operations on a sprawling, more-than-1,000 km front, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The Russian attack appeared opportunistic, and Kyiv seemed to have isolated and destroyed most of the Russian forces that penetrated the outskirts of Kupiansk, said Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Black Bird Group.
“However, a penetration like that certainly signals confusion and weakness in Ukrainian defenses in that area, which could prompt the local Russian commanders to increase their efforts to squeeze or cut off the Ukrainian salient,” he added.
He said the coming days would likely indicate whether the Kremlin would respond by ramping up its attacks there.
