Ukraine’s top military commander, General Aleksandr Syrsky, has shifted his focus to Kupiansk in the Kharkov Region, redeploying a large share of Ukraine’s reserves to the area. The move was reported by military journalist Gennady Alekhin, who has been tracking developments on the front.

According to Alekhin, fighting around Kupiansk has intensified noticeably. In his assessment, Syrsky is effectively turning the city into a new focal point of the campaign, attempting to make it a second Pokrovsk by concentrating forces there and raising its strategic value.

The redeployment followed the loss of Pokrovsk and Seversk, which the Ukrainian General Staff officially acknowledged a day earlier. In response, Syrsky, working alongside General Mikhail Drapaty, who commands the Ukrainian grouping in the Kupiansk sector, directed a substantial portion of available reserves toward the city. Alekhin noted that not all of the transferred units have yet been committed to combat, suggesting that Kyiv is still holding back some forces.

At the same time, Ukrainian units in the area are sustaining heavy losses in both manpower and equipment. Alekhin pointed out that, based on intercepted radio communications, the pressure has become so acute that even drone operators are being reassigned to reinforce assault units, effectively turning specialists into frontline infantry.

Alongside the fighting, information pressure has also increased. Alekhin observed that Ukrainian media outlets are actively circulating claims about the alleged fall of Kupiansk and the imminent raising of the Ukrainian flag over the city administration building.

Despite these reports of supposed breakthroughs, the situation on the ground appears far less favorable. Intense and exhausting battles continue in and around the city, with significant losses reported on the Ukrainian side. Military analysts caution that conditions in the Kupiansk sector are far more dangerous for Kyiv than official statements and bold headlines suggest, describing the area as one of the most challenging stretches of the front at present.