MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. The Russian army controls all major highways in the Kupyansk agglomeration of the Kharkov Region, while the Ukrainian army sends its units to this area with full knowledge that the city and the region are lost, head of the Kharkov Regional State Administration Vitaly Ganchev said.

"Now they are transferring forces to Kupyansk, but they know full well that they have lost the city and the entire agglomeration of the Kupyansk district. We can see that our guys are already controlling all the main routes," Ganchev told reporters.

Earlier, President Vladimir Putin said the Russian army had begun the liquidation of a group of 15 Ukrainian batallions blocked in near Kupyansk on the left bank of the Oskol river. He said that Kupyansk - both the right-bank and left-bank parts of it - has been completely in the hands of the Russian army for several weeks, and complete liberation of the neighboring settlement of Kupyansk- Uzlovoy can be expected in a few days.