The Ukrainian turncoat general bombing his own people
His name is not often mentioned but is well known among the Ukrainian troops defending the shattered city of Kupiansk.
Commander Lieutenant General Sergei Storozhenko of Russia The 6th Army is arguably the highest-ranking Ukrainian defector to wage war against its homeland.
He grew up in a village two hours’ drive west of the city he now besieged.
Its mission is to recapture a vital fortress on the northeastern border of Ukraine’s front line that has been under attack for two years. Occupied in the first months of the war and liberated in September 2022, Ukraine is desperate to prevent it from falling a second time.
If captured, it would serve as Russia’s gateway to the wider region, threatening key supply lines and allowing Vladimir Putin’s forces to advance towards the bigger prize: “Germany”. Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine.
So many Russian men were killed in this pursuit that Ukrainian war bloggers joke that the 50-year-old traitor was either on their side or might have been.
Russia is slowly trying to capture the frontline city of Kupiansk, which refuses to fall – Anatolia/Ukraine State Emergency Service
He was once a decorated Ukrainian officer and defected during Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Lieutenant General Storozhenko’s task has become even more difficult given that he is trying to capture the Kremlin’s version of the truth. Putin, who was either not interested in the facts or received misinformation from the General’s reports, announced last week that thousands of Kiev soldiers were surrounded in the city.
Even Russian propagandists disputed this claim. Analysts say nearly 13,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and no major progress has been made.
Ukrainian Joint Forces Group spokesman Victor Tregubov laughed at what he called the Russian leader’s “alternative reality.” “The city is far from being surrounded,” he told The Telegraph.
“The Ukrainian defense is standing and the situation is difficult; both statements can be true at the same time,” he added.
The northeastern front attracts less attention than the wars in the region DonbasBut the charred wreckage of Kupiansk serves as a cautionary tale of what Moscow wants to do to Ukraine’s frontline cities that stubbornly refuse to fall.
Currently, Russian forces occupy the northern parts of the city, while Ukraine still maintains control of the east and south, according to open source intelligence map Deep State. There is an unknown number of Russian soldiers in the center of the city.
Instead of engaging in house-to-house fighting, both sides are bogged down by the ever-present threat of drones prowling overhead.
“Russia is trying to take over the city, building by building, centimeter by centimeter,” said Major Tregubov.
This is part of a broader plan to deplete and destabilize Ukraine’s defenses over time.
“The tactic works, but only if you have unlimited infantry and you don’t care about their lives,” he added.
B’
0911 Russian siege of Kupiansk
‘
To bypass its defenses and sneaky drones, Russia adopted tactics it has used elsewhere, including at Pokrovsk; He sent small sabotage and reconnaissance groups of two or three people to break through Ukrainian unmanned lines.
leaks Often dressed as civilians but sometimes in Ukrainian military uniforms, both of which are considered war crimes under international law, they wreak havoc behind enemy lines, targeting drone operators and threatening logistics. Many were killed before reinforcements arrived.
Artillery commander Andrii “Mazhor” of the 15th Operational Brigade said that despite high losses, the Russians tried to enter the city through a narrow corridor that was heavily guarded.
“Compared to other sectors [of the front]”I have never seen Russian Federation soldiers die so senselessly as here,” he told the Kiev Independent last week. “I have never seen a single wounded soldier evacuated.”
In early September, Russian forces used a network of underground pipelines under the Oskil river, a natural defensive barrier protecting the city, to bypass Ukrainian positions on the city’s northern outskirts.
Russia, which crawled for kilometers in meter-wide tunnels, tried to ambush the pipeline for the third time after its success in Avdiivka. High-loss operation in Kursk.
Credit: X / @NOELreports
Ukrainian forces later said they blew them up and captured dozens of soldiers but acknowledged that an unknown number of soldiers had infiltrated the city. Other Russian troops attempted to cross the river on rafts and boats, which were easy targets for Ukraine to sink.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Lieutenant General Storozhenko is responsible for the disconnect between Putin’s grand claims and the reality on the ground.
Their reports land on the desk of Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, who has been spreading claims about Russia’s success at Kupiansk since August and keeping Putin directly informed of developments on the battlefield.
Lieutenant General Storozhenko, or “Watchman” as his officers called him, previously commanded the largest Ukrainian contingent in Crimea. Following the occupation of the peninsula, he defected to Russia and reportedly encouraged hundreds of his subordinates to do the same.
Awarded the “For the Return of Crimea” medal, he assumed command of Russia’s newly formed 126th Coast Defense Brigade in Crimea and steadily rose through the ranks.
According to a BBC Ukraine investigation, he was directly involved in the planning and organization of the large-scale invasion. He commanded the 35th Army in Kharkiv, where his relatives still lived, and presided over a major defeat in the city of Izium in 2022.
In 2023, he was promoted to Lieutenant General by Putin and took command of the 6th Army and the attack on Kupiansk.
‘All traitors will be brought to justice’
Major Trugabov shrugged at the mention of his name. He said Lieutenant General Storozhenko was not a figure of fear among the defense troops, noting the “many disasters” he helped manage.
“Everyone in Kupiansk knows who they are fighting with, what was shocking 10 years ago is now old news. All traitors will be brought to justice,” he said.
It is believed that approximately 500 civilians remained in the ruins of Kupiansk, which had a pre-war population of 27,000, as Russia tried to take over the city.
Yevhen Kolyada, Head of the Aid Coordination Center, which helps civilians in Kharkiv, said: “It is not possible to survive in the city, let alone live.
“There is no water, no electricity, no gas, and the shelling, rocket attacks and attacks continue non-stop.”
Winter is approaching, food supplies are dwindling, and with fighting breaking out in the streets and “more FPV drones than birds in the sky,” it’s too dangerous for civilians to leave their homes.
Mr. Kolyada says Russian drones “are also hunting civilians” and evacuating them is now nearly impossible.
Reports of Russians committing war crimes against the remaining inhabitants are increasing.
On October 3, Ukrainian intelligence intercepted a call from a Russian commander describing how one of his men “opened fire throughout the building” and shot three civilians.
In another phone call captured on October 19, a Russian officer can be heard giving the following orders: “When the civilian in the blue Panama hat passes by, shoot him and take the body.”
Posting the video on Telegram, Ukraine’s northern command wrote: “This is not an accident; this is their terrorist strategy. They are not coming to ‘liberate’; they are coming to kill, torture and intimidate. Their war is not with the army, but with the civilian population.”
On Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky He said that “the clearing operation is continuing” to remove nearly 60 Russian soldiers from the city. Russia’s defense minister denied this claim without providing any evidence, arguing that Ukrainian troops had no choice but to surrender and were trapped in what they called “cauldrons”.
Ukrainian soldiers opened fire on Russian targets in Kupiansk, where around 500 civilians were believed to remain in the ruins of the city – Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty
The truth is lost somewhere in the fog of war. Only a small number of people in the Ukrainian military are allowed to talk about the current situation.
Unlike the besieged eastern city of Pokrovsk further south, which is currently Russia’s focal point in Donbas, Kupiansk does not look set to fall anytime soon.
Russian forces are penetrating weak points but have not succeeded in destabilizing Ukrainian defenses to the extent they did at Pokrovsk, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank.
This is partly due to Kupiansk’s open terrain, which makes movement dangerous, but mainly because Russia has not devoted the same level of manpower and resources to capturing the city.
But still, the fates of the two frontline cities, 125 miles apart, appear to be tied together.
“Compared with Pokrovsk, the situation in Kupiansk looks good,” said Ivan Stupak, a Ukrainian military analyst and former officer in the Ukrainian security service.
The city is expected to hold out until at least December or January, but much depends on how well both sides can bring in supplies and reinforcements. If Pokrovsk falls and Russia deploys some of these forces to the north, “the situation becomes much more difficult.”
He hopes the winter will be in Ukraine’s favor. As the greenery decreases, Russians have fewer places to hide and attacks become more dangerous.
“Kupiansk is not the main story for now,” he said. It might happen soon.
