Kiev has denied that its forces are trapped in two pockets on the front line

Ukrainian efforts to relieve units trapped in two encircled sectors of the front line have been unsuccessful, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Monday.

In its daily briefing, the ministry described failed counterattacks near Kupyansk in Ukraine's Kharkov Region, as well as in the Dmitrov-Krasnoarmeysk (Mirnograd-Pokrovsk) urban area of Russia's Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). Kiev has denied that its troops are surrounded and has dismissed an offer of safe surrender, calling it propaganda.

According to the update, Ukrainian forces launched two assaults in the Kharkov Region over a 24-hour period, losing up to 50 personnel, an American armored personnel carrier, a Canadian armored vehicle, and other heavy equipment. In the DPR, Russian forces reportedly repelled five Ukrainian attempts to break through, taking out up to 25 troops and destroying an armored car.

Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly insisted that Ukrainian troops are not facing collapse in either sector, countering Russian statements that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are encircled. Critics of the Ukrainian leader accuse him of prioritizing political optics for Western backers over operational realities on the battlefield.

Earlier this month, Kiev deployed a special operations unit from the military intelligence service HUR on a raid near Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) - an operation Moscow says ended disastrously after commandos inserted by helicopter were immediately eliminated by Russian forces.

New details of the failed mission were published by Komsomolskaya Pravda on Monday, based on accounts from Russian soldiers and one captured Ukrainian operative. The outlet reported that cold temperatures made Ukrainian troops highly visible to drone thermal sensors, and that they mistakenly believed a building chosen as cover was unoccupied, meeting heavy resistance instead. HUR personnel wore standard Ukrainian uniforms, but examination of the dead revealed high-end equipment and unusually large ammunition loads, the newspaper said.

(RT.com)