Russia claimed Tuesday to have “control” of Kupiansk, a strategic city in northeastern Ukraine, while kyiv claimed to have recently recaptured several districts of the city from Russian forces.
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“The city of Kupiansk is under the control of the 6th Russian Army,” Leonid Sharov, spokesperson for the Russian military group Zapad, deployed in the region, told the official Russian agency TASS.
The announcement comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said there had been “progress” in negotiations with the United States to end the conflict with Russia. At the same time, European countries are putting forward the proposal to create a multinational force to guarantee peace in Ukraine.
Moscow claims to have taken Koutiansk in November. Ukrainian authorities later claimed to have recovered several districts of the city. According to Sharov, small groups of Ukrainian soldiers try to enter Kupiansk daily, but all districts are under the control of Russian forces.
On Friday, Zelensky said he visited Ukrainian troops in the Kupiansk region, in a video released after kyiv announced the reconquest of two neighboring towns and several districts of the city.
Prior to this, Ukrainian forces reported a “disturbance” in the Kupiansk region, a major railway junction in the northeast of Kharkiv province.
Russia launched its large-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022 and currently occupies around 20% of the neighboring country’s territory, mainly in the east and south.
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