Russian forces appear close to being pushed out of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupyansk, with only a handful of isolated troops remaining and even pro-Kremlin voices acknowledging the setback, according to a report.
The Kyiv Post reported Thursday that Ukrainian military officials said Russian units left inside the city are cut off from reliable supply lines and are increasingly giving up as their position deteriorates.
Viktor Trehubov, head of communications for the Ukrainian Joint Forces group, said that Russian forces inside Kupyansk are now only several dozen and include foreign mercenaries who are fighting alongside Moscow’s troops.
“They are giving up,” Trehubov said during a televised briefing carried by Ukrainian state media. “There have even been cases of foreigners – foreign mercenaries for the Russians – who surrender themselves.”
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An evacuation van travels through the largely destroyed city of Kupiansk, Ukraine, on January 6, 2025.
According to Ukrainian officials, the remaining Russian units are living largely on limited air resupply, a tactic that cannot sustain long-term operations inside the city.
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“The supply through an air bridge alone is not something that allows them to keep for a long time,” said Trehubov.
While Russian forces continue to launch multiple attacks along the Kupyansk axis each day, Ukrainian officials say those attacks lack the manpower and reserves needed to tip the balance on the ground.
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A Ukrainian army chaplain talks to Ukrainian soldiers at a shelter in the direction of Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, March 13, 2024.
“At this stage, they simply do not have additional capabilities to somehow restore the situation,” said Trehubov.
The Kyiv Post also reported that Russian military bloggers and war correspondents have begun to openly concede that Kupyansk is no longer under Russian control, marking a marked shift in Kremlin-aligned messaging.
“A whole wave of messages appeared saying that Kupyansk is gone,” said Trehubov. “Even Russian propagandists switched to a line that acknowledges that the city is no longer under their control.”
Ukrainian officials insisted that Russia never fully re-established control over Kupyansk after its liberation in September 2022, apart from a brief occupation during the early phase of the invasion.
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“In reality, it was never completely taken by them so that it would be lost, except for a short period in 2022,” said Trehubov.
Efforts by Russian units to dig into the city’s northern districts have failed, leaving those forces unable to withdraw or receive reinforcements, Ukrainian officials said.
“Right now they admit that the defense of the city by the same units that entered and tried to secure positions in the northern districts failed,” said Trehubov.
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Ukrainian soldiers from the 115th Brigade Mortar Unit conduct mortar training as members of the Anti-UAV unit test an FPV drone inhibitor in Lyman, Ukraine.
Fighting continues outside the city, particularly from positions around the Oskil River, although Ukrainian forces retain control of Kupyansk itself.
The General Staff of Ukraine said that Russian troops carried out five attacks in the Kupyansk sector on December 24, all of which were repulsed near Petropavlivka, Pishchane, Zahryzove and Kupyansk.
Trehubov said a recent Ukrainian counteroffensive further hampered Russian efforts to stabilize the front.
“The counteroffensive came as a surprise to the enemy,” he said. “Right now, they just don’t have the resources to take back control.”
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Kupyansk, a major rail and road center in the Kharkiv region with a pre-war population of around 27,000, has long been a focal point of Russian territorial claims.
The city was briefly occupied during the opening months of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 before it was liberated by Ukrainian forces later that year, a story Ukrainian officials say Moscow has repeatedly tried to obscure through disinformation.
Original article source: Russian forces near collapse in Kupyansk as Moscow’s allies concede city lost: report