RUSSIA – Russia’s chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov on Thursday announced that the Russian forces had fully taken control of Kupyansk city in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
“Formations of the West grouping have liberated the city of Kupyansk,” Gerasimov said in a briefing.
Gerasimov made the statement while briefing Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited a military command post of the country’s “West” group of troops.
He further said that Russian troops captured 80% of the town of Vovchansk, located near Ukraine’s border with Russia in the northeastern region and about 55 kilometers (34 miles) northeast of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
Gerasimov also said that there are Ukrainian soldiers willing to surrender, but face threats from their own command.
Pokrovsk serves as a critical logistics hub for Ukraine’s military operations in the region.
Sergey Kuzovlev, a military commander who also took part in the meeting, told Putin that Russian forces also captured the village of Yampil in the Donetsk region.
The village is located about 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) northeast of the city of Sloviansk, one of Ukraine’s last strongholds in the region other than Kramatorsk, the provisional administrative center for the region since pro-Russian separatists took control of government buildings and infrastructure within Donetsk city in 2014, eventually declaring the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in April of that year.
Ukraine Denies Losing Kupyansk
In a later statement, Ukraine’s General Staff denied that Kupyansk is under Russian control, accusing Moscow of “hiding the critical losses of the Russian army.”
The statement said that Ukrainian forces are taking measures against Russian troops that entered Kupyansk and that the situation around Yampil is similar.
“The statement regarding the alleged capture of 80% of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region and 70% of Pokrovsk is also false,” it added.
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