MOSCOW, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that its troops had captured “about half” of the city of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, but Ukraine’s military denied any such advance.
Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield reports from either side.
Kupiansk has been the focus of months of increased Russian military activity and heavy fighting. Russian troops captured the city in the early weeks of their February 2022 invasion and Ukrainian forces took it back later that same year.
Much of the city has been destroyed as Moscow tries to seize it back as part of a slow advance westward along parts of the 1,000-km (620-mile) long frontline.
Russia says a lot of things
They want to exaggerate their territorial gains in order to send a message that their victory is inevitable. In the past two to three years, they’ve gained about 2% of Ukrainian territory, while sustaining huge and unsustainable casualties.
They continue to sustain the unsustainable casualties and equipment losses though. If history teaches us one thing, it’s not to get into body piling contest with the Russians.
Fortunately, it was the imaginary half, dislocated from the real one
