On December 31, 2023, Ukrainian forces reportedly advanced southeast of Kupiansk and continued positional engagements with Russian occupiers along the Kupiansk-Svatove-Kreminna line.
The enemy is conducting active assaults to capture Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region - an important logistics center that can serve as a foothold for an offensive westward, toward unoccupied Ukraine.
At the Kupiansk direction, Russian troops are forced to rotate units in order to keep up the assault operations due to the loss of manpower and equipment.
The area of mandatory evacuation for families with children may be expanded in the Kharkiv region, affecting the town of Kupiansk and other settlements.
In Kharkiv region, mandatory evacuation of families with children has been announced in three communities of Kupiansk district that are under constant enemy fire.
Adverse weather conditions have not affected the active assault operations of Russian troops in the Kupiansk direction, but they are not successful, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding their positions.
In the Kupiansk sector, Ukraine’s Steel Border [Stalevyi Kordon] assault brigade, consisting of border guard officers, used a suicide drone to destroy an obsolete Russian gun, which was designed in the mid-1940s.
Russian troops are forming a striking fist in the Kupiansk direction, not abandoning assault operations, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces are repelling them.
In Kharkiv region, rescuers extinguished a fire in the ecosystem outside the village of Kulahivka, Kupiansk district. The fire was caused by enemy artillery fire.
In the Kupiansk direction, Russian forces form assault teams out of soldiers drafted only a month ago while the intensity of enemy assault efforts periodically drops as Ukrainian troops keep repelling attacks.
Having suffered significant losses, Russian troops are now regrouping in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions, as well as redeploying the newly formed brigades and divisions from Russia.
The Russian Army is intensifying its offensive efforts in the Kupiansk direction in order to weaken the capabilities of Ukraine’s Armed Forces in counteroffensive action.