A Ukrainian serviceman of 47th brigade prepares a Starlink satellite internet system at his positions at a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Avdiivka, in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Feb. 20, 2024. Inna Varenytsia/Reuters
More territory in Donetsk has been freed from Russian control under Operation Vivaldi, Ukrainian forces said on Wednesday, in what a senior commander called a major frontline pushback.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said in an Oct. 14 post on X that the operation in the Donbas freed Kolodiazi, Lypove, and Zelena Dolyna, bringing 39 square miles back under Ukrainian control.
“Across the whole operation, 16 towns and villages and [107 square miles] have been liberated,” the ministry said.
The Donbas usually refers to the mineral-rich Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, or regions.
The vast majority of the Donbas is currently occupied by Russia. Moscow has previously
saidit wants to take permanent and total ownership of the Donbas, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
Russian forces control about 19 percent of Ukraine—roughly the size of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania—according to an Oct. 14 war report card from Russia Matters, a project by Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. This includes Crimea and parts of the Donbas that Russia had seized before the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Brig. Gen. Andrii Biletskyi said in a video address that “the Kremlin’s plan to seize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will not be implemented in the foreseeable future.”
Operation Vivaldi was announced last month and is being conducted by Kyiv’s Third Army Corps in the north of Donetsk. Its aim is to dislodge Russian troops north of the strategic city of Sloviansk in Donetsk.
Biletskyi on Sept. 15 described Sloviansk and Kramatorsk (also in Donetsk) as the two main bastions of Ukraine’s so-called fortress belt, the capture of which would bring Moscow closer to its goal of seizing and occupying the whole of the Donbas.
Russian Advances Slow
Russia’s total ground advances had slowed this year, according to independent analysis, while Moscow has ramped up its aerial attacks on major cities like Kyiv.
According to a Russia Matters analysis of battlefield data by Ukraine’s DeepState open-source intelligence group, in the four weeks between Sept. 15 and Oct. 13, Russia gained a net of 16 square miles of Ukrainian territory. This is down from the previous four-week period, when Russian forces’ net gain was 57 square miles.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an Oct. 13 battlefield briefing paper that so far this year, Ukrainian forces had slowed Russian battlefield advances “to a footpace,” with Kyiv having “retaken significant territory.”
“Ukraine has regained the operational initiative on most key battlefield directions and has been contesting Russia’s strategic initiative since late 2025,” the ISW said.
The Washington-based think tank said it has reviewed evidence and assessed that so far this year, Russia has made only a net gain of around 39 square miles as a result of Ukrainian counteroffensives, which have liberated at least 404 square miles of territory.
“The daily Russian net rate of advance in 2026 is so far less than a square kilometer per day — literal footpace,” it said.
Meanwhile, Russia has continued its drone and missile strikes against Ukrainian targets and cities.
The Ukrainian air force said in an Oct. 15 Facebook post that overnight 580 Russian drones —including Shaheds and Gerberas—attacked the country, of which 536 were shot down.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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