Ukrainian Troops Counterattacked In Kupiansk—And Won. Here's How.

The Ukrainians have recently lost more cities than they've saved, however.

Pokrovsk has fallen to Russian forces. Neighboring Myrnohrad is about to fall. The Russians have captured Siversk and are contesting Huliaipole. All along a 150-mile front stretching from Kharkiv Oblast in northeastern Ukraine to Zaporizhzhia Oblast in southeastern Ukraine, the Russians—who outnumber Ukrainian troops five to one in many sectors—are on the march.

But not in Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast. In a 10-week campaign beginning in late September, a Ukrainian force led by Col. Gen. Igor Obolensky and anchored by the 2nd National Guard Corps first contained and then rolled back Russian gains in Kupiansk, pre-war population 26,000.

According to war correspondent turned drone commander Yurii Butusov, the Ukrainian counterattack killed 1,000 Russians. It’s possible hundreds of Russians are now surrounded in the town’s ruins.

“The operation to liberate Kupiansk is far from over,” Butusov wrote. “Day after day, houses are being cleared; the operation is complicated by a significant number of civilians who remain in the city—and whom the Russians use as human shields.”

Even so, the Kupiansk counterattack is a bright spot. A moment of hope and elation for a country that’s fighting for its survival through a long, dark winter.