October 24, 2023 at 1:00 a.m. EDT
Military vehicles drive past damaged buildings in Kupyansk on Saturday. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave
KUPYANSK, Ukraine — As the world focuses on the war between Israel and Hamas, Russia has launched heavy attacks in eastern Ukraine while increasing its efforts to encircle the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region and attack the area around the formerly occupied town of Kupiansk and Lyman.
The result is Moscow’s strengthened positions and renewed attacks on these strategic points on the Eastern Front forces Ukraine to defend large parts Territories that were occupied for months after the Russian invasion in February 2022 and then liberated about a year ago.
Some of the fiercest fighting is taking place near Kupyansk, a town on the Oskil River just 25 miles from the border with Russia. Ukrainian commanders and officials stationed on the Eastern Front said in interviews that Russia has significantly strengthened its forces in recent weeks by creating new, fresh brigades – including elite troops and “Storm Z” units made up of prisoner battalions.
The commander of Ukrainian ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrsky, said the situation had “significantly deteriorated” and that Russia wanted to surround Kupiansk and reach the river that cuts through the city.
In the center of Kupiansk on Saturday, the steady thunder of artillery fire echoed across the front line, six miles to the northeast.
Since Ukrainian troops recaptured Kupyansk in a lightning-fast counteroffensive in September 2022, the city and the surrounding region have been under almost constant fire.
Since then there have been only minor shifts in territorial control. In August, Ukraine ordered a major evacuation. Aside from the nearby bombings, the city is now eerily quiet; The main street and the administration building are in ruins.
Zhenia, a 28-year-old soldier fighting in Synkivka, a village northeast of Kupiansk, described fighting there in recent days as “crazy” and said the Russians had attacked Ukrainian positions with huge amounts of ammunition.
“They have definitely brought more tanks here, their artillery is firing almost non-stop,” said Zhenia, who spoke on condition of only giving his first name for security reasons.
“They’re fighting like they’re fighting in World War II,” he said, smoking a cigarette while buying supplies at a local market. “They keep sending their men like pieces of meat.”
Zhenia said that while Ukrainian forces had managed to hold the line, it appeared as if the Russians had learned from past mistakes, studied and used the terrain on the ground and gradually improved their tactics.
“There are places where we struggle to combat them and break through,” he said. “They are sending so many forces here that it is difficult to even contain them. They shoot with everything they have. They approach with their tanks flying in multiple directions and then flying their helicopters overhead.”
Kupyansk is a city on the outskirts. Residents who have chosen to remain in the city fear reoccupation. Suspicion of collaborators and those who still harbor pro-Russian sentiments is also high.
Ukrainian military intelligence and soldiers from units fighting in the region do not visibly display their rank in Kupiansk, and local administrators live outside the city center for security reasons. A billboard at the entrance to Kupiansk urges people to call a number to report information about “traitors to Ukraine.”
Anna, 63, who lives in the nearby village of Petropavlivka, sold vegetables at the Saturday market. Sometimes, she said, when a soldier stops to buy her products, she says, “Guys, please keep the Russians away, don’t let them in again.”
Although she joked about making life difficult for the Russians during the occupation and about the “top brass” next door, Anna was visibly nervous.
“I don’t want to run away from here, I’m not leaving my home,” Anna said. “Of course we are afraid that it will be occupied again… My son, who is fighting, told me that up to three Russian armies will try to advance on the eastern side of Kupiansk.”
In an intelligence memo posted on
“Ukrainian armed forces continue to maintain a significant defensive presence on this axis and it is highly unlikely that Russian ground forces will achieve a major operational breakthrough,” the memo said, adding that Russia would advance to the Oskil River and achieve a Wanted to create a buffer zone around the Ukrainian region of Luhansk, which is largely occupied.
Earlier this month, Moscow also launched a new, significant attack on Avdiivka, located five kilometers north of the city of Donetsk in occupied eastern Ukraine.
Russia carries out a major attack on a key city in eastern Ukraine
Avdiivka has been a target since Russia began fomenting war in the eastern Donbass region in 2014. Therefore, it is one of the most fortified places on the front line. Over the past decade, Russian forces have repeatedly attempted to encircle the city, most notably in a bitter battle in 2017.
In an interview, Avdiivka city military administration chief Vitalii Barabash described the new attack as “unprecedented” as Russia had deployed more personnel and equipment than at any time in a decade of fighting.
“The maximum number of equipment units that in 2014, 2015 and even 2017, when they tried to enter Avdiivka, was about 20 to 30 units,” Barabash said. “Even at the beginning of the all-out war, if I am not mistaken, no more than 30-35 units were deployed. But on October 10th they dispatched about 100 units and about 2,000 men. That was just the first day.”
Since then, Russia has bombarded the city and its outskirts relentlessly with aircraft and artillery before taking a brief two-day lull to regroup. The attacks began again on October 19th.
“There has been no such attack in any direction on the front line since the beginning of this year,” Barabash said.
If Russia captures Avdiivka, a large part of the front, stretching about 30 miles from Toretsk to Mariinka, could collapse because of its strategic location, Barabash said.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Russian forces are under pressure from Moscow to conquer the entire Donetsk region by the end of the year – an ambitious and probably unrealistic goal.
Russian military bloggers who support the war recognize this Both sides face immense challenges in the fight for Avdiivka.
“The fighting in Avdiivka and towards Donetsk is not just burning, it is glowing,” a popular blog, WarGonzo, posted on Telegram. “In the past week, Russian forces have had some successes, but risks have also emerged.”
“Their artillery on the entire Donetsk front is very strong,” the post said. “It creates great difficulties for the movement of Russian armored vehicles and infantry.”
Another well-known Russian war blogger, Rybar, wrote that the large number of troops in the area, crammed into fortified positions, made it difficult to wage a “maneuverable war” and often led to “frontal” attacks.
“The consequence of all this is a positional deadlock,” Rybar wrote in an analysis published on Sunday.
But elsewhere on the front, Ukraine is actively on the offensive, inching its way forward through smaller, lightning-fast advances Infantry attacks and the laborious capture of one Russian position after another.
Commanders said these surprise attacks are aimed at putting pressure on the Russians, distracting them and forcing them to redeploy, potentially creating weaker points elsewhere on the front that Ukraine can break through.
At a command post On the border of the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, less than a mile from the front line, an assault commander from the 68th Brigade, who goes by the call sign Dolphin, showed live drone footage of a newly captured position. “Here you see a dead Russian soldier, and here – and here too,” Dolphin said.
Russia did not advance near Dolphin’s position, but the cost of the attacks is high for both sides and commanders are under intense pressure.
“It was much more difficult than we thought,” said Dolphin’s superior, Col. Oleksii Shum, the commander of the 68th Brigade. “Although I am happy with the result, I am very emotionally frustrated with the past week.”
“We lost some soldiers just from accidents, not so much from combat,” Shum said. “Our losses are greater than before,” he said, adding: “Conducting attack missions doesn’t happen that often for us because it’s so strenuous.”