Kupyansk front: the situation is challenging but controllable by Ukrainian forces

Ukrainian forces blew up and flooded abandoned gas pipeline the Russians tried to use to infiltrate Kupyansk  

Here Ukrinform is dissecting rumors, enemy tactics, and the strategic importance of the Ukrainian fortress city on the Oskil River

In the Ukrainian media discourse, as well as in social networks, waves of panic arise from time to time regarding the situation in certain sections of the frontline, particularly in the city of Kupyansk (Kharkiv Oblast): "The occupiers have been able to break through to the city - they are already in the central part", "Kupyansk is surrounded, its loss is only a matter of time", etc.

Ukrinform found it important to sift the grains of facts from the chaff of rumors, answering the question: what is really happening in this sector? The answer is in the following analysis provided by military servicemen and experts.

"The enemy is being blocked and destroyed": an analysis from the military

The official position of the Ukrainian command remains restrained and confident. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the situation in Kupyansk and its suburbs is challenging, but fully controllable by the Defense Forces of Ukraine. The military on the ground confirm the intensity of the fighting, but at the same time dismiss the most alarmist rumors circulating on the Internet.

Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Belsky, press officer for the Dnipro Special Operations Command, comments on the details of the current tactical situation thus: “Reports about the fighting being waged in the city center are not true. The occupiers are operating in the north of Kupyansk, where they managed to infiltrate from the areas of the settlements of Radkivka and Holubivka. The occupiers are being obliterated, some are being taken prisoner. The captured Russians say they had infiltrated the city in groups of two to nine soldiers, some wearing military uniforms and others disguised as civilians. Each of these groups was given a specific task. For example, one group was ordered to capture a five-story building at a certain address, the other a 9-story building. The occupiers were also tasked with killing all male civilians aged 18 to 60. And women and children, if necessary, are used as human shields. An operation to blockade and destroy the occupiers who have infiltrated Kupyansk is currently underway”.

Yuriy Fedorenko, commander of the 429th Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment "Achilles", comments on another aspect of the enemy operations that has caused a lot of media noise: "The occupiers attempted to use the gas pipeline, which runs from the currently occupied territories to Russia, as a crucial and unconventional route for Russian infiltration. The Ukrainian forces, having uncovered this tactic, conducted an operation, as a result of which they damaged the pipe in the river area, and it filled with water and silt. At the moment, the enemy cannot use it for movement. That is, the issue with the gas pipeline has been resolved - it has been blown up."

Fedorenko also explains the dual purpose being pursued by enemy’s subversive and recon groups (SRGs), who keep on their attempts to infiltrate the city using a different tactic: “The enemy is now trying to break through to Kupyansk across the Oskil River, using boats and rafts. The Defense Forces are working hard defending the city. Although there are no regular Russian troops in Kupyansk, there are lots of enemy SRGs operating there. The Russian SRGs have two main objectives to achieve, the first being a political one. The Russians disguise themselves as civilians to get to a recognizable place in Kupyansk, unfurl the Russian flag, and then film it with a drone. The pictures are then used for propaganda purposes, creating the illusion of “captured city.” And the enemy’s second objective is that of reconnaissance. The SRGs infiltrate buildings on high ground to monitor Ukrainian logistics. They collect intelligence about [Ukrainian] logistical routes and their intensity, and then transmit it to target drone attacks on the logistical routes at the time they are the busiest”.

“The situation is challenging, but not catastrophic”: analysts’ assessments

Pavlo Lakiychuk, the head of security programs at the Center for Global Studies “Strategy XXI” commented on the story with the gas pipe with slight irony: “This suicidal operation ended predictably for the Russians – to move through the pipe four kilometers without ventilation… Thirty will enter but only six will make it to exit. They are attempting to cross the river by surface in the Radkivka area using more vulnerable methods of crossing the Oskil River, such as using boats and rafts, but with the same success –two out of ten (plus or minus) reach the other bank. This is the same Zhukov’s tactic of meat-grinder assaults. With the only difference being that our guys from "Achilles" have already turned the Russian "pipe warriors" into "subsurface heroes" - they punched a hole in the pipe. This is where Operation "Pipe 3.0" ended ingloriously."

According to the expert, the Russians, long before their “Summer Offensive”, launched an operation to capture Kupyansk (just look at the operational reports for January-February 2025): "Their plan was clear even back then - to forge a bridgehead in the Oskil River area near Dvorichna north of Kupyansk with the forces of the 1st Tank Army and 6th Combined Arms Army and cross over the river to the south of the city in the Senkove ​​area, and then, with swift converging strikes from the north and south, to capture the city and an essential railway junction."

Nine months of persistent fighting have passed, and what have they achieved? In the south, they are stuck at the crossings in Senkove. In the north, they have some gains - in six months they have managed to forge a bridgehead on the eastern bank of the River Oskil, expand it and advance south to Kupyansk.

“The crucial battles are being waged in the areas of ​​Kindrashivka, Radkivka, and Holubivka – these are the northern outskirts of Kupyansk. Moreover, sometime before September 10, Russian forward forces were able to infiltrate the northern outskirts of the city in the cemetery area (may them all stay there) and, in the following days, some of them were able to covertly penetrate into the northern part of the city – ​​their groups are currently trying to dig in high-rise buildings. The Ukrainian Defense Forces “are conducting an operation to blockade and destroy the occupiers who have infiltrated Kupyansk”… I emphasize that the battles are taking place in the northern part of the city of Kupyansk, that is, 7-8 kilometers north of Kupyansk-Vuzlovyy. This is really dangerous, especially if the enemy manages to gain a foothold in residential buildings – it will be difficult to knock them out of there. There is no talk of Kupyansk or our entire force grouping on the western bank of the River Oskil north of the city being encircled, there are no necessary preconditions to this happening,” Lakiychuk emphasizes.

Oleksandr Kovalenko, military columnist at the Information Resistance think tank shares this assessment: “The situation is really challenging: the Russian occupiers managed to gain a foothold on the outskirts of Kupyansk. At the same time, it is not catastrophic. There is no ground to talk about the city being surrounded at the moment. The Armed Forces of Ukraine have the capabilities to get these threats neutralized.”

Kovalenko points to a key tactical task for Ukrainian forces, which, if a success, could change the situation dramatically: “If we succeed to mop up the Kindrashivka – Radkivka – Holubivka triangle on the eastern bank of the Oskil River, then the bridgehead that allows the enemy to conduct assaults and throw subversive groups directly into the city will be blockaded and neutralized. Accordingly, the enemy will lose the capability for offensive actions, in particular, towards the northwestern part of Kupyansk. Our task is to do what we did near Dobropillya: to act with precision, targeting specific locations individually, having regard to the available forces and capabilities. The Russians are currently relying primarily on infantry, so we need to build up resources to get the threat localized.”

The analyst also notes that, the tactical gains of the Armed Forces of Ukraine often go unnoticed amid alarmist reports of the enemy’s advance: “There are successful episodes: the recent counterattacks in the Myrne area pushed the Russians back to the western part of the R-79 Highway (Sakhnovshchyna – Kupyansk – Pisky), which indicates that we have tactical gains. The trouble, however, is that these successes often go unnoticed, while individual reports of Russians entering the city cause disproportionate panic.”

Kovalenko draws attention to the information component of the Russian operation, which is no less important than the military one. The Russian command’s statements about its forces allegedly having seized control of the city are part of a hybrid war: “Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov claimed that Russian forces had ‘almost completely blocked’ and seized ‘about half’ of the strategic city of Kupyansk, but this information is not true. Such statements are part of Russian propaganda, which often uses the tactic of “capture on credit” - announcing control over settlements that are not actually captured. Such manipulations are aimed at creating the illusion of success and supporting the fighting spirit of Russian troops.

Strategic chessboard: what makes Kupyansk so important strategically?

The persistence with which Russian troops try to gnaw through Ukrainian defenses near Kupyansk month after month is explained not only by tactical, but also by extremely important operational-strategic goals. Control over this city, or more precisely, over its logistical infrastructure, is key to the Kremlin’s much broader plans regarding eastern Ukraine.

Pavlo Lakiychuk explains: “Kupyansk, or rather the Kupyansk railway junction, connects four important logistical routes: Kupyansk - Osnova (towards Chuhuiv and Kharkiv), Kupyansk - Tropa (southwards to Lyman and Sloviansk), Kupyansk - Svatove, and Kupyansk - Topoli (the “gate” from the Belgorod and Voronezh regions of Russia).”

That is what makes Kupyansk so important to us; it is the stability of Ukrainian defenses on the Lyman direction.

“And even more - for the Russians, capturing it, among other things, would provide a lateral logistical route from north to south, connecting the rear areas of the forces deployed in the Voronezh and Belgorod regions to the strategic Lyman direction, where the intensity of combat operations is going escalate as the tasks of their Summer offensive campaign (or whatever strategic offensive they have) are being implemented. "So the key target is the Kupyansk-Vuzlovyy railway station and the namesake village on the western bank of the River Oskil, which both adjoin Kupyansk in the south. The enemy was trying to reach these settlements in 2022, and is trying to break through to reach them now," says Lakiychuk.

This idea is developed by Serhiy Kuzan, head of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, saying the battle for Kupyansk fits into the enemy’s overall plan to encircle Ukrainian forces in Donbas: “By taking control of Kupyansk and, most importantly, Kupyansk-Vuzlovyy, the Russians could potentially restart railway traffic along the front line from north to south. This would greatly help the enemy force grouping… The Serebryanka Forestry area is located further south, and still further along this line there lies Svyatohirsk. That is, this is the north of Sloviansk and the north of the Donetsk Oblast – that’s the Russians’ plan – which is to break through, set up logistics, in particular, via railway, and then, from the north, to half-encircle our essential urban area in northern Donetsk Oblast, first Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, to be followed by Druzhkivka and Kostyantynivka.

That is, the enemy's aims to advance on Pokrovsk from the south, capture Kupyansk and Kupyansk-Vuzlovyy, and then Lyman and all of the Serebryanka Forestry area.

"This would allow the Russians to achieve the encirclement they have dreamed of so long, and which they have not yet managed to achieve. They are now trying to dig in somewhere on the outskirts. However, this does not mean that they have control over the city, over the urban development. Fierce fighting is ongoing out there. At the moment, the enemy is failing to achieve its objectives," the expert argues.

Oleksandr Kovalenko adds a time dimension to the analysis: “Currently, their tactics look like this: to grab onto Kupyansk and spend the autumn-winter period fighting urban battles, so that in the spring of 2026 they can launch a new series of offensive actions outside the settlements they are planning to capture during the cold season. Their plans are wide-ranging, including capturing the cities of Pokrovsk, Kostyantynivka, Siversk, Borova, Lyman and Kupyansk.”

The occupiers seek to conduct combat operations in urban environments, which complicates the defense, but currently their advance is limited to just a few directions, in particular Kupyansk and Pokrovsk. In the short term, the enemy will probably try to get the eastern bank of the Oskil River saturated with its infantry units, operating as subversion and reconnaissance groups or even full-fledged assault forces, according to Kovalenko.

"I reiterate it again: for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the key short-term task is to clear the area between Kindrashivka, Radkivka, and Holubivka. This area is of strategic importance, since keeping it under Ukrainian control will allow us to secure Kupyansk from further enemy assaults. As far as I know, Ukrainian troops are actively working to neutralize the Russian bridgehead in the area," the military observer emphasized.

Conclusion: an objective view of the situation

An analysis of the situation in the Kupyansk sector of the frontline allows the following conclusion to be reached: the alarmistic reports circulating on the Internet over-exaggerate the threat. The situation is challenging, fighting is indeed taking place on the northern outskirts of the city, but there is no talk of any encirclement or breakthrough into the city center. The enemy has been able to infiltrate the city with small subversive and reconnaissance groups, which are effectively blocked and neutralized by Ukrainian forces.

So, in summary:

1. Not a breakthrough, but infiltration. The adversary is not assaulting the city head-on, but is attempting to infiltrate in small groups to the northern outskirts to forge a bridgehead, conduct reconnaissance and sow panic.

2. The situation is challenging but controllable. The Defense Forces are watching the enemy's maneuvers and systematically destroying the sabotage groups. There is no talk of Ukrainian forces losing control of the city or it being encircled.

3. Desperate tactics. Russia’s use of SRGs, operations in civilians clothing, and exotic routes for infiltration such as a gas pipeline indicate that the enemy cannot succeed using classical military methods.

4. Extremely high stakes. The Russians are so keen to capture Kupyansk because control of this railway hub is key to the logistics of its entire force grouping in the East of Ukraine and a potential threat to Ukrainian defenses in the Donbas.

Myroslav Liskovych. Kyiv

For your information:

The gas pipeline near Kupyansk was a crucial and unconventional route for Russian infiltration in September 2025, but Ukrainian forces successfully destroyed it to block further advances.

Russian troops used a segment of an underground gas pipeline to cross the Oskil River and approach the outskirts of Kupyansk. This tactic was previously used near Avdiivka and Sudzha, Russia’s Kursk Oblast, where Soviet-era pipeline infrastructure allowed for subterranean movement.

To move through the pipes, some Russian soldiers used wheeled stretchers and electric scooters, with the trip taking approximately four days. The route included designated rest stops with food supplies.

The infiltration was discovered through additional reconnaissance and interrogations of captured Russian soldiers. Ukrainian forces, including the 429th Unmanned Systems Regiment "Achilles," then launched precision strikes to damage and flood the pipeline, cutting off the Russian advance.

By September 13, 2025, Ukraine's General Staff confirmed that Ukrainian defenders controlled the exit point of the pipeline.

The destruction of the pipeline forced Russian forces to revert to more vulnerable methods of crossing the Oskil River, such as using boats and rafts. These attempts were largely destroyed by Ukrainian artillery, mortars, and FPV drones.