UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, Feb 10 — Russian troops already try to build pontoon bridges to transport their military equipment to the right bank of the Oskil River, Oles Maliarevich, the commander of the 429th separate unit of the UAV systems “Achilles,” said to Espresso TV, Ukrainian media.

Milarevich noted that the combat situation around Dvorichna on the Kupiansk axis is very challenging. “Everything is done to prevent the enemy from advancing and continue to fight occupiers away from the right bank of the Oskil River,” Maliarevich said. 

Last month, Russian sources claimed they had captured Dvorichna, and Ukraine denied this claim. OSINT war tracker DeepStateMap marks most of Dvorichna as occupied on their map. 

Maliarevich says Russians use rafts and boats constantly to transport infantry soldiers and weapons for them over the Oskil River to conduct assaults on Ukrainian positions. 

“They can’t transport military equipment across the river [yet.] But they’re working [to build] platoon bridges, and [that] cannot be allowed,” Maliarevich added.

The Institute for the Study of War talked about the intensification of the attacks on the Kupiansk axis at the beginning of February: “Russian forces are also leveraging mechanized assaults to expand their salient north of Kupyansk. Russian forces have conducted five company-sized mechanized assaults and at least one reduced battalion-sized mechanized assault in the Kupyansk direction since late October 2024.”

Kupiansk, a crucial logistics, railway hub for the region, was occupied by Russia in 2022, at the beginning of a full-scale invasion. Ukraine liberated the city in September 2022, and two years later, the city once again became a focus of Russia’s new offensive. 

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