Vladimir Putin’s troops, some allegedly disguised in Ukrainian uniforms, briefly broke through to the outskirts of the northeastern city of Kupiansk but were then forced back, according to military sources.
The Russian assault group entered the city for the first time since Moscow’s forces fled in September 2022, Ukrainian officials said, in a sign of mounting pressure in this part of the frontline.
Moscow’s forces, including soldiers disguised as Ukrainian troops attacked in four waves on Wednesday, but were repelled from the city, an important railway hub with a pre-war population of 26,000, Ukraine’s general staff said.
“They partially entered the suburbs, the industrial zone, and were destroyed by our troops… There were assault actions using heavy armoured vehicles, there were attempts to bring in infantry,” the city’s military administration chief said.
The city, now just 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the front line, was under constant shelling and the population has dwindled to 3,000 people who were being urged to evacuate, the official, Andriy Besedin, said.
Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the early days of its February 2022 invasion and then 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.
The Ukrainian and Russian claims could not be independently verified.
Ukraine’s outnumbered troops have been losing ground in the east of the country for months, while trying to hold the line against what Kyiv says is a 50,000-strong force in Russia’s Kursk region.
Russian airborne troops are gradually seizing back this swathe of Kursk in Russia which was seized by Ukrainian forces in a surprise attack in the summer, say western officials.
“At the moment, we think that the offensive is largely being led by Russian airborne forces, the VDV,” said one official.
“They are making some progress.
“The Ukrainians are gradually ceding some territory.”
Kyiv troops are thought to control around 600 square kilometres (150 square miles) of territory in Kursk, compared to once having control of 800 to 900 square kilometres.
Ukraine says Russia also has also been massing troops to launch a major offensive in the southeast of the country soon.
But in a sign of struggles to find enough manpower for his war, Putin’s military has recruited thousands of North Korean soldiers to join the conflict.
The Kupiansk thrust, involving 15 pieces of hardware such as tanks and armoured combat vehicles, according to Ukraine’s general staff, was an attempt to expand offensive operations on a sprawling more-than-1,000 km (600 mile) front, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The Russian attack looked opportunistic and Kyiv appeared to have isolated and destroyed most of the Russian forces that penetrated the outskirts of Kupiansk, Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Black Bird Group, said.
“However, a penetration like that certainly signals confusion and weakness in Ukrainian defences 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 were going to react to this by ramping up their attacks there.
