Ukraine Liberated 745 Square Kilometers, 26 Settlements in Eight-Month Offensive, Zelenskyy Says

Ukrainian forces liberated 745 square kilometers and retook 26 villages across three southeastern regions during a months-long offensive in the Oleksandrivka direction, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on August 12.

In the statement, posted to his official Telegram channel, Zelenskyy stated that troops from Ukraine's Air Assault Forces and other attached units had carried out the operation between January and August.

"This offensive operation of ours was carried out precisely—exactly as it was planned," Zelenskyy wrote, describing the campaign as matching the objectives set for it.

Zelenskyy claimed the operation had killed at least 9,550 Russian soldiers and wounded more than 6,600, while also adding to the pool of prisoners available for future exchanges. The recaptured villages are spread across the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, according to his account.

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War in Ukraine

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Jul 14, 2026 12:41

Zelenskyy added that Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief, Mykhailo Drapatyi, Chief of the General Staff Ihor Skybiuk, and Air Assault Forces commander Oleh Apostol had reported to him on the operation's results and the next steps.

The operation fits a broader Ukrainian effort to wrest back the strategic initiative in the east through active defense, aimed at grinding down Russia's offensive capacity.

That approach has already made Russian advances in the Donetsk region extraordinarily costly, with Moscow estimated to be losing more than 400 troops for every square kilometer of ground it seizes there.

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