MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Kiev has to redeploy its forces and facilities from other areas in the special military operation zone to fight near Kupyansk in the Kharkov Region, military expert Vitaly Kiselev said.
"Almost our entire Battlegroup North unit is currently fighting in the Kupyansk area. Combat in the Kharkov direction has also intensified. This helps us, among other things, to divert [enemy] forces and facilities from other areas, including from the Osinovka bridgehead. They have repeatedly promoted the Osinovka bridgehead, claiming that a major group of troops is located there, but it's been destroyed," he said on the Soloviev Live TV channel.
Kiselev noted that Kiev is currently attempting to send small sabotage groups to Kupyansk, calling it an "adventure" of the Ukrainian officers. "In other words, they need to demonstrate to the West that this town is still under Ukrainian control. And to achieve this, they needed to fly a flag on some five-story building in the town center. Their repeated FPV drone strikes have failed, so they decided to simultaneously employ a so-called sabotage game. But as soon as they (the Ukrainian saboteurs - TASS) appeared in view of our drone operators, they instantly disappeared," the military expert said.
Kiev regularly uses the Internet for reporting "media victories" and frequently stages flag-planting actions in towns and settlements not actually under Ukrainian control. For example, the Russian Defense Ministry previously reported that the Ukrainian armed forces, in order to indicate their alleged presence in Kupyansk in the Kharkov Region, made an unsuccessful attempt to plant a flag on the city administration building using a drone.