Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Wednesday that his forces have liberated territory in three regions in the southeast of the country this year, emphasizing that the operation went according to plan.
The Ukrainian military has regained control of 745 square kilometers of territory previously under Russian occupation this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. He stressed that the offensive action was carried out in line with the planned strategy.
In recent months, Ukrainian forces have been trying to increase pressure on Moscow, launching counterstrikes along parts of the 1,200-kilometer front line while also targeting logistics and energy infrastructure.
According to Zelensky, 26 settlements in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions are back under Kyiv's control. They are located along a roughly 60-kilometer stretch of the front line where the borders of these three regions meet.
"This offensive operation of ours was carried out precisely, exactly according to plan," Zelensky wrote on the social media platform X, crediting Ukrainian airborne assault forces and other units.
According to data from the Ukrainian group DeepState, which monitors front-line movements, a large part of that area is still in a gray zone not fully controlled by either side. Some areas are marked as still under Russian control.
A video released by the Ukrainian General Staff on Wednesday mainly shows drone footage of Ukrainian soldiers raising a flag in liberated settlements. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of these images.
Analysts estimate that Russian forces' advances have slowed this year across most of the front, although Russian troops continue to approach key cities in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region.
Moscow has demanded that Kyiv give up the remaining part of the industrially developed Donetsk region, a demand that Ukraine refuses.
