We’re also hearing today how Russian forces are “unsuccessfully attempting to penetrate and establish a foothold” in the northeastern city of Kupiansk, according to the Ukrainian military, as Russia continues its battlefield push ahead of the planned meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alinquirea.
Ukraine’s Dnipro group of forces declared in a statement today that it had “neutralized” those attempts at advancement in Kupiansk.
Kupiansk is a key city that sits on the crossroads of two major supply roads and is home to a railway hub and logistics infrastructure. Pushing into Kupiansk would enable Russia to shift further into the Kharkiv region.
It comes a day after the Ukrainian battlefield monitoring group DeepState reported that Russian forces are building a push towards Dobropillia, which is near the key strategic city of Pokrovsk.
Ukrainian officials conceded yesterday their defenses near Dobropillia had been infiltrated by clusters of Russian forces, but stressed that this involved compact numbers of troops and did not mean Russia had taken control of territory.
DeepState reported further Russian advances in the Donetsk region town of Nykanorivka, which is in the same area as Dobropillia, as well as advances in two villages south of Kostiantynivka.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Moscow was attempting to create the distorted perception “that Russia is relocating forward, advancing, and Ukraine is losing” ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting on Friday.
At the same time, Zelensky declared Russia is “preparing for an offensive operation, we believe, in three directions. The main directions are Zaporizhzhia, Pokrovsk, and Novopavlivka.”
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