Scholz Speaks To Putin About Ukraine War, Drawing Concern From Kyiv

Russian forces have reportedly opened an all-out assault on Kupyansk in northeastern Ukraine, days after partially breaching Ukrainian defenses to the north of the city.

Ukrainian forces have struggled for weeks to hold back Russian troops who have slowly advanced on the railway and transport hub from the north, east, and south.

The city has been under Ukrainian control since the fall of 2022, when commanders retook it amid a surprise offensive in the Kharkiv region.

Earlier this week, small units of Russian troops managed to enter Kupyansk’s northern outskirts, Ukrainian and Russian officials reported. But Ukrainian commanders claimed they had repelled the effort.

On Telegram, Russian war bloggers reported infantry units had entered an industrial zone on the northern side of the city, and fierce fighting was under way.

Ukraine’s General Staff said that Russian units were attacking outlying districts, but made no mention of fighting inside the city itself.

For months now, Ukrainian troops have struggled to hold back Russian advances across the nearly 1,100-kilometer front line.

Oleksandr Musiyenko, a military expert with the Military-Legal Investigations Center in Kyiv, told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service on November 15 that “in fact, Russian troops have been intensively storming the Kupyansk direction for a year and a half. And in a year and a half of attacks, of course, they could have had some tactical success.”

He called the situation “tense” but suggested that Ukrainian forces were “succeeding in weakening” the Russian encirclement effort.

In addition to Kupyansk, Russian units are closing in on the Donbas city of Pokrovsk, and partially control Toretsk and Chasiv Yar. If those cities fall to Russia, Ukrainian supply and logistics lines across the Donbas will be severely threatened.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has stepped up its use of drones to target military bases and industrial sites such as fuel depots inside Russia itself.

On November 15, Ukraine launched dozens of drones, some targeting the southern Russian region of Krasnodar, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev reported, saying two districts — Krymsk and Krasnoarmeisk — suffered damage but no casualties.

The Telegram channel Astra reported that the attack targeted the Krymsk air base, which is used by Russian forces to launch attacks.

Ukrainian officials had no immediate comment on the attack.

Ukrainian forces have claimed to control more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since a surprise cross-border incursion in the Kursk region that was launched in early August.

Musiyenko speculated that Russian forces are attacking with added intensity elsewhere in order to draw some of the Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk to other fronts.

He said Russia’s “strategic goal” is currently to fully capture the Donetsk region.

Russia’s Defense Ministry also reported more than 80 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory as well as the occupied Crimean Peninsula. The ministry claimed dozens were downed by air defense systems.

A day earlier, Russia launched its own drone and missile strike against the Black Sea port city of Odesa, an important hub for Ukrainian grain and agricultural exports. Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov called it “a massive combined strike.”

WATCH: A Russian air attack struck a residential building and energy installations in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on November 14, killing one person, injuring 10, and leaving 40,000 people without heating.

Officials said one person died and at least 10 other people, including a 9-year-old boy, were wounded.

One apartment building was completely destroyed, several others damaged, and a main pipeline supplying heating to some 40,000 people, was struck, forcing its shutdown, regional Governor Oleh Kiper reported.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported nearly 30 Russian drones and a cruise missile were fired at three regions overnight. It claimed 25 had been downed.