Ukrainian forces advance again north of Donetsk: retake 51 sq km and liberate three more villages

Operation “Vivaldi” by the Third Army Corps has now retaken 176 square kilometers north of the Donetsk region and liberated three more villages, senior Ukrainian commander Andrii Biletskyi announced on Monday — a development that, according to American analysts, is thwarting Moscow’s plan for a broad encirclement of Ukraine’s “fortress belt” of cities, Reuters reports.

1. Ukraine’s army has retaken more territory from Russian forces north of the Donetsk region, a senior military commander announced on Monday, in an operation aimed at complicating Moscow’s assault on key Ukrainian points in the east.
2. The Third Army Corps retook an area of 51 square kilometers (20 square miles), said Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi, who has commanded operations in the area since last month. In total, the operation dubbed “Vivaldi” has retaken 176 square kilometers north of Donetsk, liberated three more villages and restored Ukrainian control over two other villages, according to Biletskyi.
3. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, has said the operation has achieved the “operationally significant” goal of disrupting Moscow’s effort to carry out the broad encirclement of Ukraine’s “fortress belt” of cities.
4. Russia’s overall advances on the front have slowed this year, but its forces continue to squeeze cities from the south and are pushing ever deeper into the eastern city of Kostiantynivka. The Donetsk region has seen most of the war’s fiercest battles.
5. Ukraine still holds about 20% of Donetsk, while Russia seeks to control all of it — Moscow’s main territorial demand in negotiations that have so far stalled but which the United States wants to restart. The reported gains in Donetsk add to Ukraine’s earlier push in the southeast, where Kyiv said it retook more than 700 square kilometers during a two-month counteroffensive.