Overview
- Ukraine’s Joint Forces Task Force said reports of its troops being surrounded in Kupiansk are false and described the claims as fiction.
- The task force reported sustained combat in Kupiansk and on its outskirts, with Russian fighters attempting to entrench in the north of the city.
- Vladimir Putin claimed Ukrainian forces in Kupiansk and Pokrovsk were encircled and suggested terms for their surrender, a statement Ukraine rejected.
- A Ukrainian eastern forces spokesman said the situation in Pokrovsk is hard but under control, acknowledging some Russian infiltration attempts.
- News reports noted that battlefield claims from both sides could not be independently verified, and Ukrainian officials invoked Putin’s reference to Azovstal as disinformation.