No need to seal Kupiansk pipeline, enemy easily eliminated there — Ukrainian brigade commander

Commander of the 3rd battalion of the National Guard’s 15th Karadag brigade, Andriy 'Caesar' Kuskоv, said this on Espreso TV.

“Information about Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups in Kupiansk has been outdated for about a week. Those were the last groups that managed to get through the pipeline. Now the pipeline and approaches to Kupiansk are fully controlled by the Defense Forces. We don’t need to completely close it off, because it is very easy and reliable to eliminate the enemy there. 

They don’t run anywhere; they have dug-in resting zones that we reach with our weapons. As for sabotage and reconnaissance groups units, maybe some groups remain in the city, but they are no serious threat. The Defense Forces are consolidating their positions in the city and on its outskirts. I can add that the enemy is now more worried about being hit with a counterattack and forced back to the Oskil River,” Kuskоv explained.

Read also Situation in Kupiansk 'critical' amid heavy Russian shelling

He emphasized that Russian groups do manage to enter the town from the pipeline, but Ukrainian forces immediately destroy them and block further advances.

“The enemy comes out of the pipeline and tries to gain a foothold. They don’t get further. The Defense Forces stop their advance and then use long-range strikes to destroy them, since storming them directly is difficult and would lead to unnecessary losses,” he added.

• On September 24, commander of the 429th separate Achilles drone regiment, Yurii Fedorenko, told Espreso that Russian forces do not control any districts of Kupiansk, although the presence of enemy sabotage groups in the town remained high.
• The General Staff reported that on September 26, there were 186 combat clashes along the Russian-Ukrainian front. On the Pokrovsk axis alone, Ukrainian forces stopped 62 Russian assaults.