Ukraine retakes 745 sq km in 'precision' operation this year, Zelensky says

Ukrainian forces have liberated 745 square kilometers (288 square miles) of Russian-occupied land this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Wednesday, describing the operation as precise and executed exactly as planned.

Ukraine's military has intensified pressure on Moscow's war effort in recent months, launching counterattacks along parts of the 1,200-km front and striking logistics and energy infrastructure. Zelensky confirmed that 26 settlements across the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions have been brought back under Kyiv's control. These areas are situated along a roughly 60 km stretch of the front where the borders of the three regions converge.

"This offensive operation of ours was carried out with precision – exactly as planned," Zelensky stated on X, attributing the success to Kyiv's air-assault forces and other units. However, a battlefield map by the Ukrainian open-source group DeepState indicates that much of the area remains a grey zone, not fully controlled by either side, with some sections still marked as Russian-controlled.

Russia's battlefield advances have reportedly slowed this year across much of the front, according to analysts, although its forces continue to advance on key cities in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. Moscow demands Kyiv relinquish the remainder of the industrialized Donetsk region, a demand Kyiv refuses to meet.

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This offensive operation of ours was carried out with precision – exactly as planned.