Senior military officials believe attack may be diversionary tactic to lift pressure on battlefield where Ukraine has taken ground
Russia is building a force of 100,000 soldiers to attack the northern sector of the frontline as Ukrainian commanders start to admit that their counter-offensive has stalled.
Col Serhi Cherevaty, a Ukrainian army spokesman, said that Russia had also ordered Storm-Z ex-convict battalions to prepare for battle and was firing more than 500 shells per day at Ukrainian forces around Kupyansk.
“The enemy has concentrated a very powerful group,” he said. “More than 100,000 personnel, more than 900 tanks, more than 550 artillery systems and 370 rocket salvo systems.”
Kupyansk is a town in the northeastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces recaptured the town, which previously had a population of 25,000 people, in September last year.