Kyiv had retaken the eastern railway hub in September months after it fell to Moscow's troops on the first day of the 2022 offensive, but in recent months Ukraine's soldiers have been on the back foot along the front line.
Russian forces "have completed the liberation of the city of Kupiansk", Sergei Kuzovlev, commander of the western troop grouping, told President Vladimir Putin, according to comments broadcast on television. He described the city as a "key cog in Ukraine's defences".
The news comes as Ukraine officially received a US proposal to end the conflict, which, according to a senior source briefed on the draft who spoke to AFP, appeared to echo Russia's maximalist demands for Kyiv to cede territory currently controlled by Moscow.
Just prior to the announcement, the Kremlin said Putin had visited an army command post Thursday amid Russia's offensive on Ukraine and listened to officers' reports on the situation at the front.
"The president and supreme commander-in-chief visited one of the command posts for the western troop grouping and held a meeting with the chief of staff," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, without specifying whether the post was in Russia or occupied Ukraine.
Before the conflict, Kupiansk had a population of around 55,000 people.
Russian strikes kill 10 as Zelensky tries to revive peace efforts
Kyiv, Ukraine (AFP) Nov 19, 2025 -
Russia pummelled Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least 10 people and throwing doubt over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's attempts to "reinvigorate" the peace process with talks in Ankara later Wednesday.
Zelensky touched down in Turkey on Wednesday morning for a trip that had seemed to raise the prospects of a revival in stalled diplomatic efforts to broker an end to Russia's invasion.
But Moscow's wave of overnight attacks were the latest in an intensifying campaign targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure and hitting a number of civilian sites as winter approaches.
The strikes hit two multi-storey apartment blocks in the western city of Ternopil, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.
Officials posted photos showing the shattered buildings, with massive fires visible through smashed-out windows.
Streets were covered with debris and parts of the city engulfed in thick grey smoke after explosions were reported at around 7:00 am (0500 GMT).
"Not military targets, but simply someone's homes. This morning Russia struck them, killing at least 10 people and injuring four dozens more," Sybiga said.
Authorities warned the toll could rise further.
"Rescuers continue to evacuate people from blocked apartments. There are people trapped under the rubble," the emergency services said.
Russia fired more than 476 drones and 48 missiles, Ukraine's air force said, adding it destroyed 442 of the drones and 41 missiles.
Ternopil officials reported the large fires had caused chlorine levels in the air to spike to six times the norm, and called on residents to stay home and close their windows.
- 'Sanctions and assistance' -
The overnight attacks also wounded at least 46 people in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, and targeted other areas of western Ukraine.
Ahead of his talks in Turkey, Zelensky called on Ukraine's Western backers to do more to get Russia to end the war.
"Every brazen attack against ordinary life shows that the pressure on Russia is insufficient," he said.
A day earlier he said the trip to Ankara would "reinvigorate" frozen peace talks.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP the "main goal is for the Americans to re-engage" in peace efforts.
Kyiv hopes Washington will be able to push Russia to the negotiating table, including by imposing sanctions, the official said.
But there was uncertainty on Wednesday over whether Donald Trump's top envoy Steve Witkoff would attend, amid media reports he had cancelled a planned trip to join.
The head of Zelensky's office, Andriy Yermak, said he was in "constant communication with representatives of President (Trump)'s administration, including US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff," but did not say if he would meet him in Turkey.
Witkoff has not said if he will travel.
Zelensky will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara in the afternoon, where he said they will "discuss the best ways to ensure Ukraine achieves a just peace."
Turkey has hosted three rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks this year that have yielded only prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of killed soldiers' bodies.
The Kremlin said that no Russian official will be present at talks, but that it remains open to negotiations to resolve the war in Ukraine.
Moscow also declined to comment on a report by US media outlet Axios that it had been working on a secret peace plan with the United States to end the almost four-year-long war.
Returning to the White House in January, Trump had sought to leverage his personal chemistry with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the war, but has so far failed to make progress.
Russian troops are making slow advances on the front and Putin has demanded Kyiv ceded more territory and renounce Western military support if it wants Moscow to halt its invasion.
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