KHARKIV, UKRAINE, Jan 6 — The region is working on the issue 24 hours a day and 12 months a year, despite the challenging weather conditions, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, during the United News telethon.

“This is our main task, because we have to help our soldiers with all our actions and means to make them as effective as possible on the battlefield and, of course, to protect them as much as possible. We have two main directions – of course, Kupiansk and Lyman directions, which we currently consider potentially dangerous,” explains the head of the region.

He adds that the north is another area that should not be forgotten. Russia can see the Belgorod direction as promising and the Sumy direction, so Kharkiv Oblast is strengthening its defense capabilities along the entire perimeter of the region.

Read more: Russian Army Attempted to Conduct a Ground Assault Four Times on the Kupiansk Axis

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces may intensify their efforts to capture Kupiansk in Kharkiv region in the coming weeks and have a grouping of forces in the area that appears less degraded than the units responsible for offensives elsewhere in eastern Ukraine

Russia could deploy new forces to the Kupiansk area at a rate roughly equal to Russian losses. However, these elements will likely be poorly trained Storm-Z and Storm-V assault units.

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