The Russian army is shelling Ukrainian positions from a distance.

In the Kupyansk sector, the Russians did not drop FAB-500 bombs from their aircraft yesterday, which, according to the head of the public relations service of the Ground Forces Command, Volodymyr Fitio, was due to the downing of their aircraft in southern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Russian army is actively using aviation from a distance. On 27 December, the Russians carried out a total of 12 attacks in the Serebryanske forestry with the support of aviation. In total, Russian troops conducted up to six air strikes from a distance and launched 20 kamikaze drones over the past day.

Russians fired with artillery 639 times on December 27, losing three pieces of equipment and 57 people in the East part of Kharkiv Oblast.

According to ISW (Institute for the study of war), Kremlin likely aimed to occupy Avdiivka and Kupiansk before elections in March 2024.

Russian dictator probably tasked the Russian military with capturing Avdiivka, and possibly Kupiansk, before the March 2024 elections, and the exhibition of the military’s support for Putin’s candidacy is possibly meant as a hedging strategy should the Russian military be unable to meet these given deadlines.

Read also: Constant missile attacks and empty streets: how Kupiansk lives on the front line.

Kupiansk, a town with a pre-war population of about 30,000 people, was occupied from late February till September 2022. The city is a railway and road hub between Kharkiv and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.