A small Russian assault group briefly broke through to the outskirts of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kupiansk for the first time since Moscow’s forces fled in September 2022, military officials said.
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 Andriy Besedin said.
The city, now just 2.5km (1.5 miles) from the frontline, was under constant shelling and the population has dwindled to 3,000 people who were being urged to evacuate, he said.
Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the early days of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion and then retaken by Ukraine in a counteroffensive months later.
Source: The Independent
