Russian forces briefly enter former occupied Ukrainian town

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian infantry managed briefly to re-enter the formerly occupied eastern Ukrainian town of Kupiansk before being beaten back by Kyiv's army, local authorities told AFP on Thursday.

The advances on the town in the eastern Kharkiv region that had a pre-war population of around 27,000 people, come as Ukrainian forces are steadily losing territory across the sprawling front.

The head of the Kupiansk military administration said the Russian assaults one day earlier as "very difficult" but said the Russian troops retreated and the situation was again under control.

The official, Andriy Besedin, said that Russian infantry had "partially entered" Kupiansk before "they were destroyed".

"The vehicles were destroyed on the way in," he added.

The military in Kyiv said separately that Kupiansk was "fully" under Ukrainian control.

Russian forces gained control of Kupiansk just days after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when the then-mayor of the town ceded control to Russia.

Ukraine recaptured it in September the same year as part of a lightning offensive that saw them regain large swathes of the Kharkiv region.

In recent months, Ukrainian authorities have issued several mandatory evacuation orders for civilians as Russian troops again close in on Kupiansk and the surrounding territory.

"Since September 2022, the enemy has been trying to recapture the town and the community, and they have been unsuccessful," Besedin said, voicing confidence that Ukrainian forces would hold Kupiansk.

Besedin told AFP on Thursday that at the moment there are around 4,000 civilians still still in Kupiansk and the surrounding vicinity.