A Ukrainian commander has confirmed a counteroffensive which has thwarted Vladimir Putin’s war goals in the Donetsk oblast, as a map shows the latest state of play along the frontline in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Analysts have noted how Ukrainian counteroffensive operations were ongoing against the Russian salient northwest of the frontline city of Lyman. But Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps Commander Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi confirmed for the first time details of the operation codenamed “Vivaldi.” It comes as Putin continues to push the line that he is winning the war, shaped by reports of exaggerated accounts from his generals about battlefield gains, while he refuses to back down from his maximalist war goals during talks with Trump administration officials.
Revishvili said that the appointments of Biletskyi and Denys Prokopenko, two of Ukraine's most formidable and effective commanders, to increased responsibilities for the defense of Donbas “could strengthen Ukraine's ability to withstand the coming Russian offensive.” Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment. Analysts have said Ukraine’s success near Lyman has stopped Russia’s attempts to encircle Ukraine’s Fortress Belt of heavily fortified cities and defensive positions in Donetsk that have been the backbone of Ukraine's defense of the eastern Donbas region. Biletskyi said in a video address on Tuesday that only the first part of Vivaldi had finished, but his troops had already cleared or liberated 32 square miles, including Serednie, a settlement northwest of Lyman.
He said the operation had dealt "a heavy blow” to Russia's 20th and 25th Combined Arms Armies and that Ukrainian drone strikes had pushed Russian supply hubs across the state border. But open sources suggest that the Ukrainian offensive has pushed further, all the way to the Zherebets River, running north-south near the border with Luhansk Oblast. Open-source intelligence (OSINT) analyst Clement Molin assessed earlier this month that the entire Lyman salient was cleared, liberating more than 77 square miles of territory.
However, Ukrainian advances have slowed considerably over the past two months.” The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Ukraine has made more gains than what Biletskyi has reported in an assessment reinforced by pro-Moscow military bloggers who have said Russia’s Western Grouping of Forces face a deteriorating situation, including north and south of the village of Kolodyazi, which Ukraine appears to have liberated. Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps released video which showed how drone operators had isolated Russian logistics through strikes of 30 miles and up to 80 miles from the frontline. These strikes have shut down a pipeline supplying fuel from Russia to occupied Luhansk Oblast and forced Russian forces to move support elements of the 144th Motorized Rifle Division from occupied Ukraine to Russia’s Voronezh region, according to the ISW.
The pro-Kremlin Z-blogger Rybar admitted Ukraine’s advances meant that Russian forces had positions south of Lyman and are struggling to recapture positions within the city itself. This could delay Russia’s offensive on Slovyansk, and make Russian forces vulnerable to Ukrainian counterattacks. Russian milbloggers have blamed the Ukrainian advances on exaggerated claims of Russian advances from battlefield commanders to the higher command.
Biletskyi filmed a video on September 7 in front of Ukraine's historic Sviatohirsk Lavra cave monastery in northern Donetsk, debunking Putin's claim that Russian forces had captured the town only days earlier. However, Revishvili said that the coming months “will nevertheless be difficult for Ukraine,” with Moscow likely to intensify pressure on the Fortress Belt with changing weather conditions working in their favor. Ukraine's persistent shortage of air-defense interceptors remains a serious vulnerability and Russia will again rely on trying to degrade critical infrastructure, particularly the energy grid and power-generation capacity, added Revishvili “Moscow may calculate that it still has opportunities to make territorial gains while using the coming winter to once again target Ukraine's energy infrastructure and civilian population, with the broader objective of exhausting Ukrainian society and forcing Kyiv into submission,” he said.
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