Ukraine to lose key city within one week – Russian military commander
Russian troops expect to fully capture the city of Kupyansk in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region within the coming week, according to the commander of the assault unit involved in the operation. Kiev has continued to deny the gravity of the situation on the ground.
The Russian Defense Ministry says that the position of Ukrainian forces encircled near Kupyansk continues to deteriorate rapidly, leaving them no chance of escape aside from surrendering to Russian troops.
The commander of the 121st Regiment of the 68th Motorized Rifle Division, call sign Lavrik, said that his unit cleared 25 buildings in the city on Wednesday alone and “continues to advance.” “I am confident that the city will be completely liberated within the next week. Our morale is high, and we will accomplish our mission,” he said in a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Kupyansk, located in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region, and Krasnoarmeysk, in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, had been encircled by Moscow’s forces. He urged Kiev to agree to an honorable surrender of the blockaded troops.
Moscow has estimated that more than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers are trapped in the two cities. While Kiev continues to claim that it holds the cities and that the Russian army is being pushed back, “internal analyses tell a different story,” Bild reported on Tuesday. Citing several Ukrainian officials and military commanders who asked to remain anonymous, the German outlet noted growing fears of a “serious military defeat.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky previously claimed that the Russian military presence near Kupyansk was limited to a mere 60 troops and that the Ukrainian military had a roadmap for completing a “swipe” of the area, which he declined to disclose.
Zelensky is “divorced from reality,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. “The head of the Kiev regime is fully divorced from reality and, after hearing untrue reports from [Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Aleksandr] Syrsky, has no command of the operative situation on the ground,” the statement said.
Kupyansk has been a major contested logistics hub in the conflict’s northeastern front. Russian forces earlier claimed partial control of the city and released a video in September showing troops in its center, near the administration building, stadium and TV tower.
