Russia claimed to have taken the frontline city of Kupiansk in the Donbas over the weekend. Until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy turned up and posted a video of himself in the city, which was clearly still under Ukrainian control, Reuters reports.

Ukrainian forces have retaken parts of the contested northeastern town of Kupiansk and surrounded Russian troops in the area, Kyiv said on December 12, as Zelenskiy visited the frontline and praised what he called a “strategically important” operation.

"Today it is extremely important to achieve results on the frontlines so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy," Zelenskiy said in a video posted on social media, standing at the entrance to Kupiansk wearing a bulletproof vest.

The PR stunt, highlighting the wartime president’s personal bravery yet again, comes at an opportune time for Zelenskiy, who has seen his reputation take a beating thanks to the mushrooming Energoatom corruption scandal that implicated some of his closest friends and partners in a $100mn kick-back scheme.

It will also boost morale in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) has Russia has been making some of the most rapid territorial gains since the start of the war. Russia has reportedly taken an addition 500 square kilometres of land in recent months. Ukraine’s troops have been particularly unsettled by US President Donald Trump’s proposal to give away land to Russia following a Moscow meeting on December 3 between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump’s envoys.

Russia says its troops are advancing across multiple axes in eastern Ukraine, including in Kupiansk and the key city of Pokrovsk where bitter fighting continues. Kyiv has denied those assertions, saying fighting is ongoing and control of territory remains contested.

Ukraine’s Khartiia Corps of the National Guard reported that several northern districts of Kupiansk had been "liberated" and that Russian forces in the city were now "completely cut off."

“Russian supply routes have been cut off and several hundred Russian troops are surrounded,” the Khartiia unit said via Telegram.

"Today, we can say that the Russians in the city are completely cut off. For a long time, they couldn't understand what was happening. But now they know they are surrounded," said Ihor Obolienskyi, Khartiia's commander, in remarks published by Ukrainska Pravda.

The Russian defence ministry has not issued a statement after Zelenskiy’s appearance in the city. Reuters noted it could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

Ukraine’s Deep State battlefield mapping project showed that at least three villages to the north and west of Kupiansk were under Ukrainian control, with the town’s northern districts also marked as reclaimed. The map suggested that remaining Russian forces were now encircled in the city centre.