• Ukraine's General Staff denies Kupiansk is under Russian control, says Ukrainian troops are taking measures against Russian troops that entered city

ISTANBUL 

The chief of Russia's general staff, Valery Gerasimov, said Thursday that the country’s forces took control of the city of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.

Gerasimov made the statement while briefing Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited a military command post of the country’s “West” group of troops.

He further said that Russian troops captured 80% of the town of Vovchansk, situated near Ukraine’s border with Russia in the northeastern region and about 55 kilometers (34 miles) northeast of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.

He added that 70% of the frontline city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, where intense clashes continue between Russian and Ukrainian forces, has been captured as well.

Pokrovsk serves as a critical logistics hub for Ukraine’s military operations in the region.

Sergey Kuzovlev, a military commander who also took part in the meeting, told Putin that Russian forces also captured the village of Yampil in the Donetsk region.

The village is located about 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) northeast of the city of Sloviansk, one of Ukraine’s last strongholds in the region other than Kramatorsk, the provisional administrative center for the region since pro-Russian separatists took control of government buildings and infrastructure within Donetsk city in 2014, eventually declaring the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in April of that year.

In a later statement, Ukraine's General Staff denied that Kupiansk is under Russian control, accusing Moscow of "hiding the critical losses of the Russian army."

The statement said that Ukrainian forces are taking measures against Russian troops that entered Kupiansk and that the situation around Yampil is similar.

"The statement regarding the alleged capture of 80% of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region and 70% of Pokrovsk is also false," it added.

Independent verification of the claims is difficult due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which has been ongoing for over three-and-a-half years.