
Defence forces advance southeast of Kupyansk — ISW

On December 31, Ukrainian troops advanced southeast of Kupyansk and engaged in ongoing positional fighting with Russian occupiers along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line, as stated in the ISW (Institute for the Study of War) report.
The report notes that a Russian millblogger claimed Ukrainian troops counterattacked near Orlyanka (southeast of Kupyansk) and achieved partial success, but ISW could not confirm this information.
Both Russian and Ukrainian sources confirmed that positional fighting continued northeast of Kupiansk near Synkivka, southwest of Svatove near Makiivka, and southwest of Kreminna near Dibrova, as well as in the Serebryanske forestry.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Fitio, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Land Forces Command, Ukrainian troops employ the tactics of active defense in the Kupyansk, Lyman, and Bakhmut directions and, when possible, conducting ground attacks.
On December 31, Russian and Ukrainian troops continued positional fighting near Bakhmut, but the front line did not change in this area. Both Russian and Ukrainian sources claimed that positional fighting persisted northwest of Bakhmut in the area of Bohdanivka and southwest of Bakhmut in the area of Klishchiyivka and Andriivka.


