Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the strategic frontline town of Kupiansk on Friday, just as Ukrainian forces reported retaking parts of the railway hub and encircling Russian troops.
Standing at the city’s entrance in a bulletproof vest, Zelensky emphasised in a video message that “it is extremely important to achieve results on the front lines so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy”.
“Many Russians talked about Kupiansk – we can see. I was here, I congratulated the guys. Thanks to every unit, to everyone fighting here, to everyone destroying the occupier,” he said.
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The Khartiia Corps announced on social media that Kindrashivka, Radkivka, and several neighbourhoods in northern Kupiansk had been “liberated”.
“Today, we can say that the Russians in the city are completely cut off. For a long time, they couldn’t understand what was happening. But now they know they are surrounded,” Ihor Obolienskyi, commander of the Khartiia Corps of the National Guard, was quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet.
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The Russian army claimed at the end of November to have again captured the city of Kupiansk, which it first seized in 2022 before Ukrainian forces retook it in the fall that year.