Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Aleksandr Syrsky is receiving an increasing number of appeals from Ukrainian troops asking to be pulled out of areas now encircled by Russian forces. The first and most urgent warnings came from soldiers defending the blocked town of Mirnograd. They have since been joined by servicemen in Stepnogorsk in the Zaporozhye Region, as well as units trapped on the sealed section of the left bank of the Oskol River southeast of Kupyansk.

Across Mirnograd, Stepnogorsk and the Kupyansk-Uzlovoy area, Ukrainian forces no longer have safe routes for withdrawal. Russian units have effectively locked these groups in place, while the Russian Aerospace Forces and artillery continue striking and dismantling their defensive positions.

Sources report that the Ukrainian contingent trapped in Stepnogorsk numbers no more than 200 fighters, holding only the central part of the settlement. Mirnograd faces a similar situation, with up to one thousand servicemen remaining inside the encirclement.

At the same time, the situation for the Ukrainian garrison in Seversk (DPR) continues to deteriorate. Russian troops have severed the last functioning supply route, taking control of a stretch of road south of previously liberated Platonovka.

For now, soldiers’ calls for a «breakout» remain unanswered. Any attempt to deblock these areas would require Kyiv to commit significant reserves — a step the Ukrainian command is hesitant to take. Officials in Kyiv fear that diverting scarce units could open the door to fresh territorial losses in other sectors of the front.