Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, in a briefing on January 27, claimed Russian forces had captured Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi. The claim was rejected not only by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, but also by pro-Kremlin channels.
Russian outlet ASTRA reported January 27 on what it called the Russian military leadership’s falsehoods about the fighting for Kupyansk.
The head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), Andriy Kovalenko, also denied the Russians had taken Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi.
“On the eastern bank of the Oskil River, units of the 1st Guards Tank Army continue to eliminate encircled enemy formations. Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi has been liberated. Checks and clearing of urban blocks in this town are underway,” Gerasimov said at a command post.
However, on the DeepState live map, Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi remains under the control of Ukraine’s Defense Forces.
Gerasimov’s “liberation” claim surprised even pro-Kremlin bloggers.
“So as not to offend the feelings of any respected generals, I’ll explain very carefully about Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi. Red circles Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi. Blue marks the localities that, to put it mildly, are not exactly under our control. The thick black (not red) line is the boundary up to which there is visual confirmation of AFU control,” wrote the author of the war channel “Belarusian silovik,” attaching a map.
The pro-Kremlin channel “Voenny Osvedomitel” also wrote that reports from Russia’s military leadership about the situation on the Kupyansk axis “live in their own parallel reality that barely intersects with objective reality.”
“Perhaps there exists some inverted version of Kupyansk and nearby areas where all these very strange things with regular liberations and encirclements are taking place. There are no other options left,” the admins wrote, referencing the popular series “Stranger Things.”
Admins of the “Blue Z Beard” channel also did not believe Gerasimov’s claims of control over Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi.
“Go ahead and write that Kyiv is already liberated too, why not. There haven’t even been any urban fights there yet. Looks like someone’s calendar got stuck on 2022,” the channel’s authors wrote.
Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation weighs in
CCD head Andriy Kovalenko said Russian forces control neither Kupyansk nor Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi, and that the Russian General Staff, with its lies, is “reinforcing Putin’s parallel reality.”
“In Kupyansk they’re finishing off clearing out their remnants. But Gerasimov brings Putin a lie on paper about ‘control of Kupyansk’ and even already of ‘Vuzlovyi.’ The reality is completely the opposite,” Kovalenko wrote.
He said the fiction about capturing Kupyansk-Uzlovoy is intended by Russia’s military leadership to show supposed “breakthroughs at the front” that don’t exist, particularly to Western countries.
Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi is an urban-type settlement in Kupyansk district, Kharkiv region, on the left bank of the Oskil River, about 7 kilometers south of central Kupyansk.
On January 25, Viktor Tregubov, head of communications for Ukraine’s Joint Forces, said Russia is trying to break through in the Kharkiv region to create a buffer zone, with constant fighting around Vovchansk and Kupyansk. He added that the occupiers are not achieving success on the Kupyansk axis.
On January 19, The Washington Post reported that Kupyansk had been a “bargaining chip” for Russia in talks, and that its loss gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “card” in negotiations.
A January 16 report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Russia is lying about the war in Ukraine to convince the West it can win and to force Kyiv to accept Kremlin demands in peace talks. Kupyansk, analysts wrote, “has become a particular pressure point” for Russia’s military leadership.
