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Ukraine’s Third Army Corps command reveals a months-old counteroffensive in northern Donetsk region. Its ultimate goal remains unknown.

Source: Meduza

The Command of the Ukrainian Ground Forces’ Third Army Corps said its forces are conducting a counteroffensive in the northern Donetsk region. The corps commander, Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi, described the operation in a special video address. Pro-war Russian bloggers had previously reported a Ukrainian offensive near the city of Lyman (1, 2, 3).

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have named the operation “Vivaldi.” Biletskyi said that during the offensive, the Third Corps had “cleared out infiltrating forces” in several communities along the Lyman axis — Novoselivka, Oleksandrivka, Yarova, and the area around Korovyi Yar — and liberated Serednie. In total, Ukrainian forces cleared 75 square kilometers and liberated another 10 square kilometers from Russian troops. They also allegedly “dealt a devastating blow to the combat capabilities of Russia’s 20th and 25th armies.” This information has not been independently verified.

Biletskyi said that at this stage of the operation, Russian forces have lost about 1,500 soldiers — though he did not specify whether the figure referred only to troops killed, captured, missing, or otherwise permanently lost — as well as more than 12,000 drones and hundreds of armored vehicles, artillery systems, and other vehicles. He also said Ukrainian drones had cut off the enemy’s supply routes.

“There is a lot of information in open sources right now saying that the ultimate goal of our offensive is to reach the banks of the Zherebets River. But our operation is called ‘Vivaldi.’ And as everyone knows, Vivaldi has four seasons. This is only the first,” Biletskyi said.

Biletskyi urged people to continue maintaining “operational secrecy” and promised updates on the operation from official sources. The Ukrainian operation in the Donetsk region has been underway for about four months, but officials had not previously disclosed it. Its ultimate goal remains unknown.

Lyman is a strategically important city roughly 100 kilometers north of Russian-occupied Donetsk. Russian forces captured it in May 2022, but Ukraine regained control of the city in October of that year. In early summer 2026, Russian forces again tried to storm Lyman but failed.

Meduza’s Razbor team will soon examine what is happening in this sector of the front in its next battlefield update.

The war in photos: Kramatorsk

A Russian airstrike destroyed a private home in Kramatorsk, a city 40 kilometers from Lyman. Olena and Yana lived there. They survived only because they were at a city market when the strike occurred. Nothing remains of the house but ruins. The photos were taken on September 16, 2026.