Ukrainian MP Maryana Bezuhla says a “catastrophe is brewing” in Kupyansk, Kharkiv region. She warns Russia could reoccupy areas liberated by Ukraine’s Armed Forces in 2022.
Bezuhla claims the gravity of Russia’s push toward Kupyansk is being “silenced at decision-making levels.”
“A catastrophe is brewing in Kupyansk, which was postponed for a year but is now being silenced at decision-making levels. After that, a path opens for the Russians to re-conquer the territories of Kharkiv region liberated in 2022,” Bezuhla wrote.
Ukraine’s military leadership and the General Staff of the Armed Forces had not commented on Bezuhla’s statements at the time of publication. In its 8 a.m. update on September 19, the General Staff reported eight Russian attacks in the Kupyansk sector over the past day.
“Defense Forces repelled the enemy’s assault actions toward Kupyansk, Novoosynove, Kondrashivka and in the direction of Borova,” the General Staff’s press service said.
A representative of Ukraine’s 10th Army Corps said on September 19 that Russian forces are infiltrating the city via pipelines and striking it with KAB guided bombs and artillery, but the fighting is fluid and talk of “full control” is premature.
On September 18, Oleksii Belskyi, spokesperson for the Operational-Strategic Group “Dnipro,” said Ukrainian forces in Kupyansk were clearing out small Russian groups of two to nine troops that had slipped into the city’s outskirts from the Radkivka and Holubivka directions. He said there were no Russian troops in the city center.
On September 15, Bezuhla wrote that Russian forces were advancing inside Dnipropetrovsk region and said “this is entirely Zelensky’s responsibility.” The lawmaker criticized Ukraine’s president for “reading the General Staff’s reports” and keeping Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov in their posts.
