MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. Some Ukrainian forces near the town of Kupyansk in eastern Ukraine could be surrounded, said retired Colonel Oleg Starikov, a former member of the Security Service of Ukraine.

"In the area of Kupyansk, between Peschanoye and Borovaya, the Russian Armed Forces are catching us in a pocket," the analyst said in a video on his YouTube account.

Starikov also said Russian forces, if they cut behind Ukrainian forces near Kupyansk, could then continue their advance toward Kharkov.

Earlier, the head of the military-civilian administration of the Kharkov Region, Vitaly Ganchev, told TASS that Russian troops are holding fire control over the road to Kupyansk suburbs, which prevents the Ukrainian military from rotating its units in the area. Military analyst Andrey Marochko told TASS that Ukrainian military command deployed a platoon of untrained mobilized soldiers to the area near Kupyansk because of heavy losses.

Earlier on Tuesday, the head of the Kiev-appointed Kharkov regional military administration, Oleg Sinegubov, announced that the regional authorities were ordering mandatory evacuation of all civilians from Kupyansk and three adjacent communities.