MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have acknowledged that their units in the Kupyansk-Uzlovoy area in the Kharkov Region are in dire straits after becoming trapped, according to radio intercepts made public by the Russian Defense Ministry.
TASS has compiled the main information available so far.
Ukrainian troops situation
- Rain and sleet mixed with freezing temperatures in the Kupyansk area has created an "icy hell" for the Ukrainian armed forces; service members are forced to spend the night in trenches out in the open, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. According to the ministry, units of the 1st Special Forces Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard and the 43rd Mechanized Brigade, which are encircled on the eastern bank of the Oskol River south of the Kupyansk-Uzlovoy settlement, found themselves in a catastrophic situation.
Overnight temperatures are expected to drop even further in the Kupyansk direction, making the situation even worse for Ukrainian troops blocked on the eastern bank of the Oskol River, the Russian Defense Ministry noted.
Actions of the Ukrainian Brigade Command
Ukraine’s army became overly optimistic due to "victory" reports in the Kupyansk area, and because of that, commanding officers didn’t feel the need to give orders to retreat, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The Ukrainian military leadership is forcing service members to bail water out of flooded dugouts in the Kupyansk-Uzlovoy area, according to radio intercepts published by the ministry.
Over the past week, the Ukrainian military command has prohibited their servicemen from abandoning their positions, threatening them with execution for disobeying orders, Dmitry Kushnerenko, a Ukrainian serviceman captured by the Russian Armed Forces near Kupyansk-Uzlovoy, said in a video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry.
He added that severe frosts caused water to freeze at the exits of Ukrainian armed forces’ shelters in the Kupyansk-Uzlovoy area, preventing Ukrainian soldiers from exiting and causing them to freeze to death.
Ukrainian army casualties
- Up to 30% of Ukrainian army soldiers in the Kupyansk direction are incapacitated due to frostbite and other cold-related injuries, and it is impossible to evacuate them, the Russian Defense Ministry reported, citing radio intercepts and prisoners' accounts.