The armed forces of Ukraine on Wednesday repelled an attempt by Russian troops to pierce through the defences near the northeastern city of Kupiansk according to a statement by Ukraine’s General Staff.
Kupiansk was seized by Russian troops in the early days of their February 2022 invasion and recaptured by the forces of Ukraine in a lightning counter-offensive months later. In recent months, the area has seen an upsurge of activity by the Russian forces.
As per a Ukrainian general staff report, posted on social media, Russian forces attacked in four waves and deployed about 15 pieces of equipment, including tanks, armoured vehicles and a mine-clearing system.
“With skillful and decisive actions, our defenders stopped the enemy, destroyed all of its armoured vehicles and eliminated a significant portion of its personnel,” the report said.
Some of the Russian forces, it said, had, donned uniforms resembling those of the Ukrainian military, a practice that the Ukrainian armed forces say amounts to war crimes.
Reports say two columns of Russian soldiers and assault equipment such as including tanks, armoured vehicles and a mine-clearing system had entered Kupiansk after dark. Russian servicemen scattered through the town, but Ukrainian forces struck armoured vehicles in the town and in surrounding forests and destroyed a part of the assault group.
A separate General Staff report reported heavy military activity further south in Pokrovsk, a major target of Russian advances, with Ukrainian forces repelling all but one of 36 attacks.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his nightly video address, said reports presented by top military commander Oleksandr Syrsyi focused on Donetsk region, the main theatre of Russia’s westward advance, along with Russian movements near Kupiansk.
In the hotly contested Donetsk region, prosecutors said a Russian attack killed two residents in the village of Shevchenko, west of the region’s Russian-occupied main city, Donetsk.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
