Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the outskirts of Kupiansk on December 12, 2025, where he said Ukrainian forces are “getting the job done.”
Ukrainian forces appear to have reclaimed ground in and around the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise visit on Friday. The Ukrainian gains, which defy earlier Russian claims to have captured the city, give Kyiv a much-needed victory amid setbacks elsewhere on the battlefield and in peace negotiations to end the nearly four-year-long war.
Ukrainian forces are “getting the job done” in the Kupiansk sector, driving back Russian forces, Zelenskyy declared in a video recorded on the city’s southwestern outskirts, well within range of Russian strike drones and artillery fire. Zelenskyy and General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, also visited command posts of units fighting in the sector and the “Kupiansk” Tactical Group overseeing them.
The visit came as the well-respected Ukrainian analytical group DeepState, which runs a popular battlefield map informed by geolocated footage and soldiers at the front, reported that Ukraine had retaken part of the city and several villages to its northeast.
Maps of the situation in Kupiansk on October 19 (left) and December 12 (right), respectively, according to the Ukrainian analytical project DeepState.
Ukraine had liberated Kupiansk during its September 2022 counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast. However, beginning in late 2024, Russian forces slowly pushed onto the western bank of the Oskil River, north of Kupiansk. They then began infiltrating into the city last summer, including by using an underground pipe to move troops and supplies into Radkivka, just north of Kupiansk. Russian forces pushed deeper in the fall.
In September, in response to the Russian advances, Syrskyi created a “search-strike group” tasked with driving the Russians out of Kupiansk, the Ukrainian National Guard’s 2nd “Khartiia” Corps explained. The group comprises elements of the corps’ 13th “Khartiia” Brigade, the 475th “Code 9.2” Assault Regiment, the 92nd Assault Brigade, Ukrainian military intelligence’s International Legion, and the 144th Mechanized Brigade. The corps said it planned and commanded the operation in cooperation with the “Kupiansk” Tactical Group and under the supervision of Syrskyi and National Guard commander Oleksandr Pivnenko.
According to reports by DeepState and 2nd Corps, Ukrainian forces first retook the villages of Radkivka and Kindrashivka and established fire control over Holubivka, aiming to cut off Russian troops in Kupiansk. The Ukrainians then cleared Mirove (aka Moskovka) and northwestern Kupiansk, though some Russian troops remain in pockets in the central part of the city. The Ukrainians were facing forces from Russia’s 68th Motor Rifle Division and 27th Motor Rifle Brigade, reportedly supported by an unmanned systems regiment and elite “Rubikon” and “Sudnyi Den” drone units.
On Telegram, Russian bloggers lambasted the deceitful practice within the Russian military of reporting advances “on credit” — that is, before they have actually been made. During a heavily scripted meeting with President Vladimir Putin on November 20, Russian military leaders had prematurely boasted that their forces had completely captured Kupiansk. Putin subsequently decorated the commander of Russia’s “Zapad” Group of Forces, which is responsible for the area, with a Gold Star as a “Hero of Russia.”
Ukraine’s apparent success in Kupiansk comes as its undermanned forces face a difficult situation elsewhere on the battlefield. In recent weeks, Russia has captured most of Pokrovsk, a small city in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, while Ukrainian troops in nearby Myrnohrad are at growing risk of encirclement. Meanwhile, Russian forces have also taken most or all of the eastern town of Siversk and are bearing down on the southern town of Huliaipole.
Russia’s gains remain slow and costly, and it still appears to have little chance of achieving an operationally significant breakthrough. Nevertheless, the Kremlin insists it will take the rest of Donetsk Oblast by force if Kyiv refuses to withdraw as part of a peace settlement. The Trump administration points to Russia’s advances to argue that Ukraine would be better off submitting to Moscow’s demand — something Zelenskyy has rejected.
To bolster its bargaining position, Kyiv hopes to convince both Moscow and Washington that the Ukrainian defense will continue to hold. “Today, achieving results on the frontline is crucial so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy,” Zelenskyy acknowledged during his visit to Kupiansk.