"It’s like whack-a-mole": Soldiers of "Khartiia" told about battles with ruscists in Kupiansk, - WP
Russian occupiers continue their attempts to infiltrate Kupiansk, in particular through the gas pipeline. There, they are awaited and destroyed.
According to Censor.NET, The Washington Post has published a report from the command post of one of the battalions of the 13th Brigade of the NGU, "Khartiia," operating in the Kupiansk direction and participated in the operation to encircle the city.
Details
Ukrainian defenders destroyed a group of occupiers with drones as they crawled out of an abandoned gas pipeline in Kupiansk, trying to find their way to the city centre.
The only surviving Russian soldier, trying to warm himself, entered an abandoned house and lit a fire.
Smoke rises from the chimney into the air — right into the field of vision of Ukrainian drones, which have been circling in the sky all this time.
WP journalists watched the operation in real time on screens in an underground command post outside Kupiansk.
There commanders and analysts from Ukraine’s "Khartiia" Brigade give commands to drone operators working from shelters near the front line. One eventually "caught" the Russian as he tried to take cover under a tree. A munition from a drone falls near the target.
Control over Kupiansk
The authors of the article note that in the summer it seemed that the city was about to fall. However, Ukrainian soldiers have managed to consolidate control over most of the city in recent months.
Russia initially seized Kupyansk — a key rail hub that sits on an important logistical resupply route — in 2022, but lost control of the city during a Ukrainian advance later that year.
It never gave up on taking it back, and it intensified its efforts last year as Ukrainian defenses slipped and peace talks got underway," the publication writes.
The military says that the counteroffensive in the northeast is ongoing and is one of Ukraine's few real tactical successes over the past year.
"And proves that Ukraine’s military, when properly armed and organized, can still push Russian forces back," they added.
Russia hoped to use Kupiansk as a bargaining chip — a tool to pressure Kyiv into exchanging Ukrainian territories in other areas. Ukraine thwarted this plan. Kyiv has long and consistently stated that any initiatives involving "territorial swap" with Russia are unacceptable.
"We understand that we need to create proper conditions to give our president more leverage at the talks, because our foreign policy is primarily based on our success on the battlefield," said Colonel Maksym Holubok, chief of staff for the 2nd National Guard Corps, which includes the "Khartiia" Brigade.
Defence of the city
Last summer, Ukraine focused on other areas of intense combat operations, particularly in Donetsk Oblast. At that time, the Russian command identified vulnerabilities in the defence of Kupiansk. The sudden onslaught took Ukrainian units by surprise, and the front line was on the verge of collapse, according to the authors of the article.
Ukrainian commanders began to sound the alarm and warn the higher military leadership: if reinforcements from the prepared reserves were not sent there immediately, the city would be surrounded and lost.
"Such a loss would have cut off key logistics routes Ukraine needs for other sections of the front and delivered a major win to Putin as he was trying to undermine Ukraine’s position at the negotiation table.
Ukraine urgently shifted attention to the city, sending in specialized drone and infantry units and wresting back the initiative. Ukrainian brigade and battalion commanders fighting for Kupyansk said they are now engaged in "search and destroy" missions to clear the fewer than 100 Russian foot soldiers still scattered through the city center and to stem the flow of arrivals coming from the eastern side of the Oskil River that bisects the city and some villages nearby," WP writes.
"Russia never managed to hold defensive positions in Kupyansk. They didn’t take the city, they infiltrated," said Colonel Serhii Sydorin, a commander of the search and destroy group in the "Khartiia" Brigade.
Every day, Russian forces continue to try to increase their presence in the city: they ferry people across the river in inflatable boats or bring them in through an empty gas pipeline that runs under the riverbed.
Drone footage reviewed by The Washington Post shows the bodies of dead Russian soldiers near the pipeline exits and along the riverbanks.
"It’s like whack-a-mole," Colonel Holubok says. "We’re holding a hammer and those moles keep popping up."
Russian tactics
Every day, UAV units strike Russians when they leave the gas pipeline, trying to penetrate the city.
According to Ukrainian commanders, Russian soldiers travel up to 14 kilometres underground, sometimes moving on electric scooters to speed up their movement. Some of them come to the surface with signs of chemical poisoning caused by their stay in the pipe.
The Russian Federation used similar tactics during the battles for Avdiivka and Kursk.
In the summer, captured Russian soldiers revealed the route of the pipeline to the Ukrainian side during interrogations. This allowed efforts to be redirected to identify the exits and strike them. Ukrainian units also studied the construction plans for the gas pipeline to determine where its underwater sections could be targeted.
"If they have anything, it’s human resources. The way I use drones, they use humans," says Lieutenant Colonel with the call sign Abat from the Khartiia Brigade. "They’re being pushed out of the pipeline, just to try to test us. If they throw in 10, they know maybe two will get to a position."
At the current pace, Abat notes, the complete clearing of Kupiansk could take up to six months. Searching for lone fighters while up to a hundred enemy drones constantly circle the city is extremely difficult. Russian soldiers can hide in ruins, under stairs or in small crevices, and suddenly open fire, destabilising areas that Ukrainian units thought was clean.
