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Ukrainian-Born Russian General Leads “Meat-Grinder” Assaults on His Home Region
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A Ukrainian-born Russian general is reportedly leading Moscow’s assault on the northeastern city of Kupiansk—just two hours from where he grew up—according to The Telegraph on November 9.
Lt. Gen. Sergei Storozhenko, now commander of Russia’s 6th Combined Arms Army, is one of the most senior Ukrainian defectors fighting for Moscow since the start of the invasion.
Once a decorated officer in the Ukrainian military, he switched sides in 2014 during Russia’s occupation of Crimea—and is now directing attacks against his home region.
The Telegraph noted that Kupiansk, a strategic hub on Ukraine’s northeastern front, has been under repeated Russian attack for nearly two years.
The city was first seized in early 2022, liberated later that year, and is now again under siege.
Storozhenko grew up in a small village just west of Kupiansk—the same region his troops are now bombarding. Ukrainian officials say their forces are launching relentless glide-bomb and artillery strikes on the city, where fierce street battles have reduced neighborhoods to rubble.
“The city is far from encircled,” said Victor Tregubov, spokesman for Ukraine’s Joint Forces Group. “Ukrainian defenses are holding, and the situation is difficult – both statements can be true at the same time.”
Tregubov dismissed Vladimir Putin’s recent claim that “thousands” of Ukrainian troops were trapped inside Kupiansk as another distortion of battlefield realities. Even Russian propagandists appeared reluctant to repeat the Kremlin’s exaggerated narrative, The Telegraph reported.
Ukrainian intelligence estimates that as many as 13,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the effort to seize the city—yet no decisive breakthrough has occurred.
“Russia is trying to take the city centimetre by centimetre, building by building,” Tregubov said.
To avoid heavy losses, Russian troops are increasingly deploying two- or three-man sabotage units, sometimes disguised as civilians or Ukrainian soldiers—a tactic prohibited under international law.
Their goal is to infiltrate Ukrainian lines, sabotage logistics, and target drone operators. Most, Ukrainian forces say, are killed before reinforcements can arrive.
The Telegraph noted that Storozhenko’s rise through the Russian ranks has been both steady and brutal. After defecting during the annexation of Crimea, he reportedly urged his subordinates to do the same and was later awarded a medal “For the Return of Crimea.”
He went on to command the 126th Coastal Defense Brigade in occupied Crimea and later the 35th Army in Kharkiv, where his relatives still live. He oversaw Russia’s failed offensive in Izium in 2022 before being promoted to lieutenant general the following year.
Now leading the 6th Army, Storozhenko is again under scrutiny—this time for the enormous casualties under his command and for misleading reports sent to Russia’s top brass. His dispatches reach Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who briefs Putin directly. Analysts believe his distorted reporting may explain the Kremlin’s repeated false claims of success around Kupiansk.
“Compared to other sectors, I haven’t seen Russian soldiers die as pointlessly as here,” said Andrii “Mazhor”, an artillery commander with Ukraine’s 15th Operational Brigade. “I haven’t seen a single wounded soldier getting evacuated.”
Earlier, Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General presented the United Nations with evidence documenting more than 190,000 war crimes committed by Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion, calling the atrocities part of a “planned state policy to destroy the Ukrainian nation.”
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