The Russian army claimed on Sunday that it had captured a small town in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, with Kiev forces for their part asserting that this village had “no significance” from a military perspective.
However, this announcement highlights the increased pressure that Moscow forces have exerted on the front in recent weeks. On Thursday, the Russian army announced the capture of another small town, Veseloïe, in the Donetsk region (east).
“The village of Krakhmalnoye in the Kharkiv region was liberated thanks to the successful active operations of the units of the Western group of troops in the Kupiansk zone,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily Ukraine operational bulletin.
This town, home to about 45 residents before February 24, 2022, is located 30 kilometers southeast of Koupiansk and has been a target of months of attacks by Russian forces.
According to a spokesman for the Ukrainian Land Forces, Volodymyr Fitio, who was interviewed on Ukrainian television on Sunday, this capture at the front has “no strategic significance.”
“There are five houses. “They were destroyed by the Russians,” he downplayed, assuring that the Ukrainian troops “have been moved to prepared reserve positions” where they “now hold the defense and prevent the enemy from further advance.”
In light of these repeated attacks, Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of 26 locations in the Kharkiv region, where Kupiansk is located, earlier this week. This decision affected around 3,000 people, including 279 children.
This entire area had been occupied by Russia at the start of the attack ordered by Vladimir Putin in February 2022, until a lightning attack by Ukrainians in September of that year liberated the region and forced Moscow troops into a humiliating retreat.
Russia went on the offensive again in this area in the summer of 2023, while Ukraine unsuccessfully attempted a major counteroffensive in Donbass (east) and the south.
Since the failure of Ukrainian reconquest efforts, Russian forces have been pushing northeast, into the Kupyansk area, but also east, particularly around the city of Avdiivka.
Kiev, for its part, assures that it will detain the Russians and inflict significant losses on them, but also insists to its Western allies that it needs weapons and ammunition in order to continue to resist.