Putin: "A Failure" VIDEO

Putin then turned to Kupiansk.

"I'll start with the city of Kupiansk, where representatives of the Kyiv regime like to pose for photographs in front of the town's entrance sign. Our troops are between 2.5 and 4–5 kilometres away from the western outskirts of the city. The enemy launched several counterattacks, but without success," the Kremlin leader said.

Russian forces captured Kupiansk at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated the city in September 2022.

Russian troops attempted to seize the city again in the autumn of 2025.

On December 2, 2025, the Russian leader publicly "invited" foreign journalists, including Ukrainian reporters, to visit Pokrovsk and Kupiansk in an apparent attempt to demonstrate Russia's alleged control over the two cities.

However, on December 12, 2025, it became known that the Ukrainian Defence Forces had carried out a successful counteroffensive near Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region and encircled a Russian force in the city. Following that operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Kupiansk front and recorded a video beside the heavily damaged entrance sign to the city.

Putin also mentioned Lyman and Sloviansk, which he claimed was "about 8–9 kilometres away," as well as Kramatorsk, which he said was "only four kilometres away."

Meanwhile, the Russian president did not mention that Russia has still failed to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after more than four years of its war against Ukraine.