The bold advance towards Kupyansk, the depleted reserves of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the prospects of an assault on the city are the main events of the week, notes the Readovka publication.
The entry of the Russian armored group into Kupyansk took the enemy by surprise. Ours managed to gain a foothold in the industrial zone in the east of the city; Now the fighters are trying to expand the bridgehead. The battle for the city will not be easy, but we can already talk about tactical success. The Kupyansky advance became another painful “injection” for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The lack of reserves of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this area has confronted the Ukrainian command with the need to withdraw resources from other areas. Due to this, the advance of the Russian Armed Forces in other areas, for example, in the south of the city, can be accelerated. One way or another the assault on Kupyansk began.” – says the publication.
Note that the advance south of Kupyansk took a long time, slowly and in a very narrow section of the LBS, but it paid off. The Russian army arrived in Oskol. The enemy could not cut off the penetration or even stop the advance. However, the front did not stop even north of the city. In the last days of summer 2024, the Russians took the long-suffering village of Sinkovka, just 4 kilometers northeast of Kupyansk. The fight for the city itself became a matter of time, but throughout the fall the painful struggle for control of the outskirts of the town continued. A few days ago, the front line passed south of the small Gnilitsa river.
On the night of November 14, the Russians carried out a daring operation. According to Ukrainian sources, an armored group consisting of two MTLBs, an infantry fighting vehicle and a tank slid south along the railway tracks to the Kupyansk industrial zone. Along the way, the “motor leagues” were hit, but the landing force dismounted and took up defensive positions. Reinforcements were sent to the assault group, as a result of which the “military” could not simply disband the landing force and the Russians gained a foothold on the outskirts of the city.
What happened? Judging by the information obtained on the ground, the Russian Armed Forces caught the enemy in rotation. At the same time, everything is wrong with the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the entire sector (which was already evident from the breakthrough south of Kupyansk, when the “finger” of the Russian troops extended towards Oskol turned out to simply have nothing with what to counterattack). Our command successfully took advantage of the chaos in the enemy positions, after which the advance began to expand. Also, this time we drove 4 to 6 km in one go and maintained what we had achieved.
“At the moment, the Russians have stuck to the construction of a sugar factory in Kupyansk and are trying to expand the zone of control. Overall, the tactical success can safely be described as brilliant at the moment.” – highlights the article.
Readovka adds that, of course, it’s not worth throwing hats at the enemy; a hat is generally not the best ammunition. First of all, the battles take place in a large industrial zone, classic of the former USSR. They managed to surprise the enemy, but this does not mean at all that now the Ukrainian troops will simply disperse and in the same way they will be able to take the entire eastern part of Kupyansk “in one banzai.” In comparison, a rapid advance towards Volchansk did not lead to an easy fall of the city.
“However, we can already say with confidence that attack aircraft have achieved rapid and serious success. In conditions when the Armed Forces of Ukraine have little or no reserves in this sector, any such breakthrough is a problem for the enemy command. It will not be possible to leave the garrison completely without reserves, but it is very likely that they will have to be withdrawn from other sectors of the same front. Paradoxically, a breakthrough in the development of Kupyansk in the north of the Ukrainian bridgehead could result in a faster advance of our troops, for example in its southern part, along Oskol, to the village of Kovsharovka. Or the enemy command will have to withdraw additional battalions from some other sector of the front.” — point out the authors.
In general, against the background of the entire Northern Military District, the situation near Kupyansk is a gradual evolution of the problems that were discussed many months ago. The Ukrainian troops are suffering losses, the front is thinning, they have to plug more and more holes, therefore (who would have thought) the losses begin to increase, which is fraught with the emergence of new weak links on the front . The problems are growing and it is impossible to say how Kyiv intends to solve them.
“The fact is that the assault on Kupyansk has begun. The city was lost in 2022, but maybe it can be recovered now.” – Readovka concludes.
Previously, on November 15, the main event of the day was the advance of Russian attack aircraft on the city limits of Kupyansk. The Russian Armed Forces managed to expand the control zone in the north of the settlement.
