[Korrespondent] Russians tried to break into Kupyansk.
On the afternoon of November 13, a column of Russian armored vehicles managed to break through to the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region; Ukrainian military officials say that the force was later destroyed.
On November 13, Russian troops, using several armored vehicles, attempted to enter Kupyansk, but the Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled the enemy. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that the Ukrainian troops stopped the occupiers' advance on the city, destroyed all armored vehicles and eliminated a significant part of the manpower. "Kupyansk is completely under the control of the Ukrainian Defense Forces," the statement said.
THE IMPORTANCE OF KUPYANSK
Kupyansk is an important railway and transport hub in the Kharkiv region. It was occupied at the beginning of the full-scale war, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated it in the fall of 2022.
The city, located on both banks of the Oskol River, became a fortified area of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and potentially left the opportunity to prepare offensive operations deep into the Russian-occupied territory of the Luhansk region, primarily in the direction of the cities of Svatovo and Kremennaya.
Therefore, it was especially important for the Russian army to drive the Ukrainians out of Kupyansk and the eastern bank of the Oskol in general in order to secure their captured territories. The Russians began implementing this plan in the fall of 2023.
Since then, Russian offensive operations have continued both near Kupyansk itself and south of the city, where the Russian army managed to reach the Oskol River in October of this year and cut through the Ukrainian bridgehead.
As for the city itself, for a long time the fighting was conducted at a distance of 7-9 km from its eastern outskirts. Russian aviation also destroyed it with daily air strikes.
ATTEMPT TO BREAK THROUGH
On November 13, it became known about the first attempt by the Russian Federation to invade directly into the borders of Kupyansk.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that from 14:30 on Wednesday, Russian troops began trying to break through the Ukrainian defense in the Kupyansk direction. “The enemy’s assault groups attacked the positions of the Ukrainian defenders in four waves. In total, the enemy used about 15 units of equipment. In particular, tanks, combat armored vehicles and the UR-77 mine clearing unit,” the General Staff said in a statement.
Moreover, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, some Russian soldiers were dressed in uniforms of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Such actions violate the laws and rules of warfare and are a war crime, the General Staff notes. Russian official sources have not commented on these statements by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to DeepState, the Russians attacked in two columns that advanced from the Liman Pervy area. That is, the Russian armored groups covered about 9 km to Kupyansk.
The first column consisted of two armored trucks (MT-LB), an infantry fighting vehicle, and a tank. The composition of the second column is unknown, as it attacked Ukrainian positions after dark.
As DeepState writes, one MT-LB was shot down in the forest on the way to Kupyansk, another managed to break through to its eastern outskirts and was destroyed in the Zaoskolye area on Nekrasov Street. About 15 Russian military personnel landed from it, ran away and hid in neighboring houses.
A Russian tank was destroyed on the same street. According to DeepState, some of the Russian military were also found and eliminated. The reinforcements sent by the Russian command were also destroyed, the Ukrainian project claims.
DEFENSE ISSUES
The question arises: how did the Russian column almost unhindered overcome the defensive line and break into the city, which should have been reliably protected from all sides?
DeepState analysts point to the “strange” placement of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ combat formations in the forest area north of Kupyansk.
"In recent months, the contact line has become a mystery for all units. The combat formations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the enemy were simply scattered throughout the forest, rotations were carried out on both sides, and the war in the forest looked "strange," the Ukrainian project's review says.
DeepState is asking law enforcement agencies to respond to the actions of the brigade command responsible for this section of the front.
Ukrainian military blogger Oleksandr Karpyuk (Serg Marco) believes that the reason for the breakthrough in the Kupyansk direction was the shortage of mining units in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They should have mined the enemy assault groups' approach routes in advance. He also points to the shortage of FPV drone crews that could attack the enemy during the assault.