KHARKIV OBLAST, UKRAINE, Apr 24 — The Russian troops have resumed their attempts at an offensive on the Kupiansk axis but have not been successful, said Serhii Melnyk, head of the Kharkiv military garrison, in his Telegram channel.

In just one day, in the Kupiansk direction, the Russian military attacked Ukrainian positions five times near Berestove, Kharkiv Oblast. The Ukrainian army repelled all the attacks.

“Ukrainian soldiers are professionally fulfilling the tasks of defending the direction and causing losses in the enemy’s manpower and equipment,” he noted.

Serhii Melnyk added that the situation is under control, and that the Ukrainian military responds to Russian attacks.

Russians are not abandoning their goal of occupying Kupiansk, a town in the Kharkiv region, again. It is a logistics and railway hub between Kharkiv and Luhansk oblasts, and seizing it would allow the Russian army to boost its supply efforts. 

On April 18, the General Staff reported that Russians renewed localized assaults on the Kupiansk axis. On April 4, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the fighting paused on the axis because Russians were rotating their units to compensate for significant losses. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assesses that one of the main efforts of the Russian full-scale invasion is to capture the remainder of Luhansk Oblast and push westward into eastern Kharkiv Oblast and northern Donetsk Oblast. 

UPD from April 25, 12:09 p.m.: Inconsistencies in the last paragraph fixed. It’s the General Staff that reported about the restart of Russian attacks on the Kupiansk axis.

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