Ukraine’s ‘Operation Vivaldi’ pushed Russian forces back around Lyman in the Donbas. Now both armies are massing troops for the next battles farther south.

Andriy Biletsky, commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps, said this week that his units are successfully carrying out Operation “Vivaldi.” The first of its four phases, he said, is nearing completion: Russian units near the town of Lyman, which had been trying to push through to the Siverskyi Donets River opposite Sloviansk, have been driven back across the Chornyi Zherebets River, a tributary of the Siverskyi Donets. Judging by published footage, the situation for Russian forces has indeed deteriorated as a result of a Ukrainian offensive that has lasted several months. There is still no confirmation, however, that Ukrainian forces have pushed the Russians back across the Chornyi Zherebets.

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Lyman

• Russian troops — the 20th Army — crossed the Chornyi Zherebets near Makiivka in early 2025, and that summer the 25th Army crossed farther south, near Torske. Since then, the two armies have been trying to break through to Lyman from the north and east. In early summer 2026, they assaulted the town and failed. That was the high point of the Russian offensive. 20th Army assault troops were spotted on the outskirts of Sviatohirsk, penetrated 10–12 kilometers behind Ukrainian lines as far as the Oskil River, and even crossed the Siverskyi Donets with a small force near Pryshyb, east of Sviatohirsk, while the 25th Army entered Lyman and tried to fight its way through to the crossings south of the town.
• But that was also the moment the 3rd Corps launched its counteroffensive. By July, Russian troops had been driven out of Lyman except for its southeastern edge. Ukrainian forces then went on the offensive in other sectors: against the 20th Army’s northern flank near Karpivka and Ridkodub, against its southern flank near Yarova, and from the “pocket” near Stavky against the junction between the 20th and 25th Armies.
• In early September, Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly said Russian forces had captured Sviatohirsk. He could not have picked a worse moment: that was precisely when 20th Army troops were falling back from the forests east of Sviatohirsk and elsewhere along the front.
• By the time Biletsky spoke, published footage had confirmed Ukrainian advances near Yarova and Novoselivka; from the Ridkodub and Karpivka area to the village of Serednie; and from the “pocket” at Stavky and from Lyman, advancing behind the 20th Army’s lines around Kolodiazi and as far as the outskirts of Zarichne on the Chornyi Zherebets River.
• Russia’s 25th Army, meanwhile, still holds positions near Lyman. Whether it also still holds Zelena Dolyna and Shandryholove is unclear. No visual confirmation has emerged that Ukrainian forces have reached the Chornyi Zherebets or crossed it, as some unofficial Ukrainian sources claim.
• Biletsky did not describe the plans for the next phases of the offensive. A few weeks ago, he was given a new post: he now commands not only the corps but also the newly created “Center” operational-tactical group, which is meant to defend Sloviansk and neighboring Kramatorsk against a Russian advance from the north and east.
• Ukrainian forces may well try to use counterattacks to halt a Russian advance that poses a far greater operational threat: the push along the southern bank of the Siverskyi Donets toward Mykolaivka and in the area of the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal toward the eastern outskirts of Druzhkivka and the southern outskirts of Kramatorsk. In recent days, Ukrainian units reinforced by the 46th Airmobile Brigade, which previously fought where the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions meet, and by at least one assault regiment, have been trying to counterattack near Rai-Oleksandrivka, southeast of Mykolaivka.

The Russian offensive on Druzhkivka and Dobropillia

• The Russian command appears to have realized that the troops advancing on the Sloviansk–Kramatorsk urban area cannot succeed with the forces they have. The Russian force trying to break through to Druzhkivka from the west along the Kazennyi Torets River has been reinforced with units of the 90th Tank Division and the 41st Combined Arms Army, which had spent more than a year fighting where the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions meet — including against Ukraine’s 46th Brigade, which has also been transferred to the center of the Donbas.
• The reinforced Russian force pushed several kilometers toward the Dobropillia–Kramatorsk road and advanced to the outskirts of Druzhkivka.
• Some of the troops that had been attacking in the sector between Dobropillia and Druzhkivka, meanwhile, were given a new task: to increase the pressure on Dobropillia from the east. Another Russian force launched an offensive aimed at outflanking Dobropillia from the southwest. So far, though, these Russian attacks have not produced any decisive gains.
• Both sides are clearly preparing for a fall and winter campaign and for heavy fighting southwest and southeast of Kramatorsk, and they are massing forces in the central Donbas accordingly.

Orikhiv and Mala Tokmachka

• Russian forces have captured Mala Tokmachka, a village that became a meme more for its name than for its operational significance. To document the capture, the Russian command arranged extensive aerial filming showing troops raising Russian flags throughout the village. Yet judging by footage published by the Ukrainian military, the front has already moved several kilometers northwest of Mala Tokmachka.
• Mala Tokmachka fell not because of the efforts of Russia’s 70th Motorized Rifle Regiment, which had been fighting for it for years, but because of the rapid advance of neighboring units. Russian troops from the “Dnepr” Group of Forces pushed through Novodanylivka to the outskirts of Orikhiv — a local Ukrainian stronghold that anchors Ukraine’s entire defense in the central Zaporizhzhia region. Another large Russian formation, the “Vostok” Group of Forces, advancing from the direction of Huliaipole, reached the Orikhiv–Novomykolaivka road despite months of Ukrainian counterattacks, getting behind Ukraine’s 118th Mechanized Brigade, which had been defending Mala Tokmachka. After that, the village became impossible to hold.
• The Ukrainian position around Orikhiv keeps deteriorating. The Russian command has committed forces from one of its air assault divisions southwest of the town, with the clear intention of outflanking it from the west as well. That division had previously been deployed on the bank of the Dnipro south of Zaporizhzhia, near the settlement of Stepnohirsk. Ukrainian forces counterattacked at Stepnohirsk and in the surrounding area over the summer. Even then, there was speculation that this had become possible because the Russian paratroopers had left for an unidentified sector of the front. Now they have “surfaced” near Orikhiv, just as Russian forces are mounting a decisive push on the town.

How the two armies’ control of territory is changing