War in Ukraine: offensive in Kupiansk, Trump appoints a pro-Russian as intelligence director… update on the situation

Russian offensive on Kupiansk increases pressure on Ukraine

A small Russian assault group briefly entered the outskirts of Kupiansk in northeastern Ukraine for the first time since the Russian army was routed there in 2022, officials said Thursday Ukrainians, a sign of growing pressure from Moscow's forces in this sector. Russian soldiers, some of whom wore Ukrainian uniforms to surprise the city's defenders, launched four waves of assault on Wednesday against this railway junction which had 26,000 inhabitants before the war.

“Some reached the outskirts of the city, the industrial zone, and they were eliminated by our troops… Columns of armored vehicles attacked the city and they tried to bring in infantry.” said the head of the Kupiansk military administration. The town, which is only 2.5 km from the front line, is subject to constant bombing and the 3,000 residents who still live there have been asked to evacuate, said the official, Andriy Besedin. , reached by telephone by Reuters.

Kupiansk was conquered by the Russian army in the first days of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, then recaptured by kyiv during a lightning counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region in September of that same year. The Russian army did not comment on Wednesday's attack but a Russian official, Vitali Gantchev, assured that Moscow troops had established a foothold in the suburbs of the city. Reuters was unable to verify the situation on the ground.

Subjected to constant assaults and outnumbered, Ukrainian troops have been gradually losing ground in the east of the country for months, while trying to retain the territory they conquered in the Russian region of Kursk to have a bargaining chip during possible peace negotiations.

Anticipate possible negotiations

If the attack in Kupiansk seems to have failed, it reflects the vulnerability of the Ukrainian defense lines, which could encourage Russian commanders in this area to redouble their efforts, underlines Pasi Paroinen, military analyst within the Black Bird Group. The fighting intensified with the prospect of Donald Trump's return to the White House, the American president-elect having pledged to end the war in Ukraine, without explaining how but at the likely price of a freeze of the line head-on.

The hypothesis of the opening of peace negotiations after Donald Trump takes office on January 20 encourages Moscow to redouble its efforts to improve its positions on the battlefield, at the cost of heavy losses according to experts, but with some successes in Donbass. kyiv also expects a soon reopening of the front in the Zaporizhia region, in the south-east of the country, where the Russian army has recently transferred reinforcements.

If these reinforcements do not seem sufficient to carry out a large-scale offensive, they could “fixer” more Ukrainian troops and facilitate the task of the soldiers who are working to carry out the priority objective set by Vladimir Putin for his army, the conquest of the entire Donetsk region.

According to Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian military analyst, any advances by Russian forces in this sector could also contribute to “force to comply with Moscow's conditions” to end the war, namely “accept the reality on the ground”.

Moscow claims capture of village in eastern Ukraine

Russia claimed Thursday the capture of a village near Kurakhové, in eastern Ukraine, one of the sectors of the front where its troops are advancing against a Ukrainian army that has been in retreat for several months. Russian forces “continued to advance deep into the enemy's defenses and liberated the settlement of Voznesenka”in the eastern region of Donetsk, the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily report of the fighting.

Voznessenka is located less than 10 kilometers north of Kourakhové, a town which had around 18,000 inhabitants before the conflict, and which is notably home to a large deposit of lithium, a rare mineral, nearby. The Russian army is currently at the gates of the suburbs of this city, located near a reservoir.

Further north, the city of Pokrovsk, an important rail and road hub for Ukrainian troops, is also threatened with conquest by Russian forces. Still on the eastern front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Wednesday
in his daily address that the Moscow army “tried to expand its offensive, especially in the Kupiansk area”, 40 km from the Russian border.

Trump picks Democratic defector critical of Ukraine as intelligence director

Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would entrust the national intelligence directorate to Tulsi Gabbard, a former soldier and defector from the Democratic Party, whose positions favorable to Russia have caused controversy.

Just after the Russian invasion of February 2022, she wrote on the social network X: “This war and this suffering could have been avoided if the Biden administration and NATO had simply taken into account Russia’s legitimate concerns about Ukraine’s possible entry into NATO.”