KYIV: Ukraine said Tuesday its military was outgunned in the eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have been striving for months to seize control of the regional hub, Kupiansk.
Russian troops initially gained control of extensive territories of the eastern Kharkiv region early in the invasion but Kyiv’s forces pushed them back in a lightning offensive around a year ago.
Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces, remarked, “The situation is complicated. We have to fight in conditions of the superiority of the enemy both in weapons and in the number of personnel”.
Despite these challenges, Syrsky noted that Ukrainian forces were adapting to the situation on the front lines and ultimately managing to maintain their position. The Russian defence ministry reported on Tuesday that it had successfully repelled eight Ukrainian attacks around Kupiansk with the support of artillery.
Syrsky also highlighted Russian forces, consisting of units recruited from prisons, advancing further south around the beleaguered city of Bakhmut, which fell under Moscow’s control during the summer.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based military observation group, recently pointed out that Ukrainian forces were grappling with ammunition shortages, leading them to ration resources. The group suggested that a combination of these shortages and delays in receiving Western security assistance could impede future Ukrainian counteroffensive operations.
Separately, Ukraine reported that its air defence systems had successfully downed two Russian drones over a western region overnight. Simultaneously, Moscow claimed to have destroyed at least three Ukrainian drones over the border region of Bryansk.
