Ukraine recovers the strategic city of Kupiansk and the Kremlin is criticized

Information arrives in dribs and drabs, but Christmas Day 2025 will be remembered as an important day in the war against Russia. Ukraine has recovered the strategic town of Kupyansk, located in the province of Kharkov, in the northeast of the country and a major battlefront in defense of the city of Kharkov, the second largest Ukrainian city.

Russian ‘Milbloggers’ – the only source of information on the battle front from the Russian side – have reported over the last few hours that the Russian army was no longer able to maintain its positions in the city and that they had begun a withdrawal forced by Ukrainian pressure. According to official Russian sources, there were at least two full battalions in Kupiansk – normally between 500 and 1,200 soldiers each – but there would no longer be more than 50 units on the ground.

Kupiansk is a fundamental enclave in the northeast of the country. Not so much because it is the last line of defense of the city of Kharkiv, but because it has a large railway and road junction near the border with Russia that connects several operational directions in the northeast and east of Ukraine, especially towards Donbas. A privileged situation to move ammunition, fuel and troops on a large scale.

In addition, it is on the line of the Oskil River, which functions as a natural barrier: whoever controls the city and its crossings controls an important part of the logistics and access to the interior of Ukraine.

For Ukraine, regaining control of the city will make it harder for Russia to stabilize a rail supply line and reduce its ability to push west toward Kharkiv and into the country.

Such is its importance that it was one of the first Russian objectives at the beginning of the invasion and recovered by Ukraine in 2022. Recently, Russia has defined it as one of the main strategic objectives in the province of Kharkov.

This information would agree with the visit that Volodymyr Zelensky himself made to the outskirts of the city two weeks ago. The Ukrainian president placed himself less than two kilometers from the front, within shooting range of Russian artillery and drones, all with the aim of denying that the Russians had the city under control.

Last week, as demonstrated by the Ukrainian open-source intelligence project DeepState, at least three villages north and west of Kupiansk also remained under Ukrainian control. The northern Kupiansk districts were also under Ukrainian control at the time.

Criticism of the Kremlin

The Russian ‘Military Bloggers’, according to the Institute of War (ISW), are not only recognizing the Ukrainian advances but are throwing all kinds of criticism against the Russian military command for providing false information about what is happening on the front line.

As the ISW has been able to confirm in recent weeks, Russia does not currently have the troops or the capabilities to maintain joint offensives in different parts of Ukraine.

ISW recently assessed that Russian forces will likely continue to struggle to sustain the Kremlin’s desired multifaceted offensives in different directions due to the long-term material and manpower costs of these simultaneous operations.

In fact, what is known as the Ukrainian ‘fortress belt’ – or ‘fortress belt’ in Spanish – which covers the entire front in the Donbas from south to north is having greater demands than expected for Russia, which has had to allocate more resources. Something that will probably force Russia to choose in the short or medium term where it wants to concentrate its efforts.

Putin is likely demanding in peace negotiations that Ukraine cede the unoccupied parts of Donetsk province to save Russia personnel and material resources. What’s more, it is even possible that Putin is looking further into the future with the aim of achieving an advantageous position on the ground and pursuing his primary goal of controlling all of Ukraine in the not-too-distant future.