Victory Chronicles-DAY 1388

Ukrainian military its forces executed a pre-planned counteroffensive in the Kharkiv regional town of Kupiansk after anticipating a Russia’s latest advance toward the population center, moving swiftly to sever supply lines and trap the units that had pushed forward in recent weeks. 

According to the 2nd Khartia Corps of Ukraine’s National Guard, assault units advanced simultaneously from two and three directions, severing Russian logistics routes and isolating enemy groups that had pushed into the city earlier this year. The operation also reclaimed the villages of Kindrashivka and Radkivka and nearby forested areas, while Ukrainian troops cleared dozens of buildings in northern Kupiansk.

Kupiansk isa key rail and logistics hub in eastern Ukraine and  was liberated in 2022 but has faced renewed Russian pressure in recent months. Commanders say Russian forces advanced up to about 3.7 miles from the Oskil River, creating a critical situation before the counterattack.

Ukraine’s Col. Ihor Obolenskyi, who helped plan the operation, said Russian units are now relying on drone drops for supplies as all ground access routes are under Ukrainian fire control. He added that fighting continues inside the city, complicated by the presence of civilians whom Russian forces are using as human shields.

Ukraine repatriates 19 children from occupation, including teen harassed by Russian troops. Ukraine has brought back 19 children and teenagers from Russian-occupied territory, including a 19-year-old girl who was harassed and threatened by Russian soldiers, human rights advocacy groups said.

The return was coordinated by the Bring Kids Back UA initiative and the Save Ukraine charity. The group includes children as young as 12 and several older teens who faced direct pressure from occupation authorities.

One of them, a 17-year-old girl identified as Sofia, said Russian troops searched her family’s home and fined her mother 15,000 rubles (about $160) after finding pro-Ukrainian messages on her cell phone. 

The family was placed under constant surveillance, while Sofia was subjected to propaganda at school and forced into military-style training. An 18-year-old boy, Ostap, received repeated draft notices from a Russian enlistment office before he even turned 18. After soldiers came to his home, his mother stopped him from leaving the house. Despite the risks, the family decided fleeing was the only way to keep him safe.

Another survivor, 19-year-old Olena, said Russian soldiers stalked her on the street and threatened her with weapons and sexually harassed her. On one occasion, she was forced into a car but managed to escape.

Russian attacks grind down Donetsk regional town of Kostiantynivka, block by block, Ukraine’s defenders say. Ukraine’s defense forces have released new photos and video showing the scale of destruction in Kostiantynivka, a frontline city in eastern Ukraine that Russian troops are steadily reducing to ruins.

Interior ministry officials say that the cityis being erased neighborhood by neighborhood. Once a busy industrial hub, Kostiantynivka now shows rows of burned apartment buildings, a destroyed kindergarten and a heavily damaged church. 

The town, along with Slovyansk, were the only two rail arteries from Kyiv to reach Bakhmut (formerly Artemivsk). The images were captured by an aerial reconnaissance officer from the Patrol Police’s combined Khyzhak brigade, which is helping defend the area.

Ukrainian soldiers from the 24th Mechanized Brigade also published extended video footage documenting daily life for civilians who remain. Residents describe living under constant bombardment, with homes on fire, bodies trapped under rubble and makeshift burials taking place in courtyards.

Zelenskyy visits Kharkiv regional town of Kupiansk front as Russian troops face encirclement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video that was recorded near the battered entrance near the highway sign of Kupiansk, saying Ukrainian forces are achieving tangible results on a key stretch of the front where Russian troops have been pushed into a precariousposition.

In the video that was posted on Dec. 12, Zelenskyy spoke from the visitation sign of the town and fsaid he had visited the Kupiansk axis to meet soldiers holding the line in northeastern Ukraine, an area Russia has repeatedly tried to retake. He congratulated Ukraine’s Ground Forces on their professional holiday and thanked units fighting in the sector.

Ukraine’s second war-time president’s visit to the area came after one month when Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin ruler falsely claimed to have occupied it. 

Zelenskyy stressed that battlefield gains directly shape Ukraine’s diplomatic leverage. Strong positions at the front, he said, translate into stronger arguments at the negotiating table as Kyiv seeks an end to the war on its terms.

Key Takeaways

1. Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov effectively rejected seven points of the US-proposed 28-point peace plan on Dec. 11, including the original plan’s points on territorial swaps based on the line of contact and the provision of reliable security guarantees for Ukraine.
2. Lavrov’s Dec. 11 statements indicate that the Kremlin is unwilling to accept the original 28-point peace plan but that Russia will instead demand further modifications should Ukraine agree to it.
3. Lavrov’s effective rejection of key elements of the 28-point peace plan is consistent with Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin’s Nov. 27 statement that the 28-point plan could be the basis for future negotiations, but not a final agreement in itself.
4. Senior Kremlin officials, including Putin, have similarly rejected key points of the 28-point plan in recent weeks.
5. The Kremlin claimed that Russian forces seized Siversk as part of the Kremlin’s intensified cognitive warfare effort that seeks to portray Ukraine’s frontline as on the verge of collapse, and Russian battlefield victory as inevitable. Neither is true, and the Russian seizure of Siversk is unconfirmed as of Dec. 11.
6. The Kremlin is attempting to portray the claimed fall of Siversk as the start of the battle for Slovyansk – a battle the Kremlin has not set conditions on the ground to begin.
7. Putin’s Dec. 11 meeting is part of a pattern of senior Russian officials aggrandizing claimed battlefield victories in the past several weeks to create the false perception that the frontlines are collapsing to push the West and Ukraine to capitulate to Russia’s demands. ISW continues to assess that the frontline in Ukraine is not facing imminent collapse.
8. Russian forces are only making tactical gains across most of the theater.
9. Ukrainian forces struck an oil platform in the Caspian Sea for the first time and struck other Russian oil and defense industrial infrastructure on the night of Dec. 10 to 11.
10. Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Pokrovsk. Russian forces recently advanced near Siversk.

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