ROSTOV-ON-DON, May 14. /TASS/. Ukrainian military commanders have left the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkov Region, with only covering forces remaining in the community, Viktor Vodolatsky, coordinator for inter-parliamentary ties with the parliament of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), State Duma lawmaker told TASS on Tuesday.

"We see from reports [that] 2-3 settlements [in the Kharkov Region] are liberated almost every day. There is already no military in Kupyansk and Ukrainian commanders have long fled it. Local authorities have also left and only covering units have remained waiting for the approach of Russian troops," the lawmaker said.

The combat situation in Kupyansk will be tense, he said.

"Units from Western countries, regular troops from Poland and the Czech Republic have been added there under the flag of mercenaries who are today undergoing practical adaptation of unit cohesion in real battlefield conditions, as they say," the State Duma legislator said.

The Kharkov direction is the most important and challenging frontline area for Russian troops, he pointed out.

"The [borderline] Belgorod Region and Belgorod are shelled from Kharkov," he said.

"That is why, it is important for Russia’s Battlegroup West to advance at a fast pace today," the lawmaker said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported earlier that Russian troops had liberated several communities in the Kharkov Region. Head of the Kharkov Region civil-military administration Vitaly Ganchev told TASS that Ukrainian troops had entrenched themselves in communities in the Kharkov direction. However, they could not but retreat under the thrust of Russian forces, he added.