Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov says that after Russian forces took control of Kupyansk in November last year, Ukrainian troops repeatedly tried to signal their presence in the city.

According to him, the Ukrainian army used drones to place its flags on administrative buildings in Kupyansk. Gerasimov noted that these were promptly intercepted and stopped, and stressed that this was about symbolic actions rather than full-scale assaults. He added that Russian units are currently engaged in street fighting in Kupyansk-Uzlovoy and are in the final stages of taking the settlement under control.

Gerasimov also stated that the Ukrainian command is trying by any means to halt the advance of Russian forces, disregarding its own losses. He said units of the Russian Armed Forces continue to expand the security zone in the border areas of Sumskaya and Kharkovskaya regions.

He made these comments at a meeting held after an inspection of how units and formations of the «Tsentr» grouping are carrying out combat tasks on the Dnepropetrovsk direction in the special military operation zone.

Earlier, on 11 January, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that Ukrainian forces attempted to place a Ukrainian flag on the Kupyansk city administration building using a drone. The ministry stated that both the drone and the flag were destroyed by Russian troops.