Ukraine said Tuesday that its forces had repelled a Russian effort to cross the Oskil river, which has long been a de facto front line across the east of the war-scarred country.
The waterway winds its way from Russia’s western border through the northeast of Ukraine, with Moscow and Kyiv’s forces entrenched on either side of sections of its banks.
“As a result of the successful operation, the enemy was destroyed. The right bank of the Oskil river is under the control of the Defence Forces,” the Ukrainian military said in a statement.
Ukrainian military bloggers had over recent days reported a Russian push over the river near the village of Novomlynsk in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Moscow’s forces have been advancing in the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia, and are closing in on the civilian hub of Kupiansk, which is divided by the Oskil river.
Kupiansk had a pre-war population of around 27,000 people and was occupied by Russian forces just days after the Kremlin launched its invasion, when the town’s mayor ceded control.
Ukraine recaptured it in September 2022 as part of a lightning offensive that saw them regain large swathes of the Kharkiv region.