Zelensky: 10,660 Russian troops killed or wounded this week, Ukrainian advances in Lyman sector

Ukrainian forces have killed or wounded 10,660 Russian troops over the past week, while gaining ground in the Lyman sector of the Donetsk region — President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, citing the report of Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi, as The Kyiv Independent reports.

“The occupiers continue to be destroyed and the set objectives are being achieved,” Zelensky wrote on X after receiving the headquarters’ report. According to the Ukrainian president, Kyiv has video evidence for every Russian loss included in the weekly figure. Russia does not routinely publish its own losses, and the figures could not be independently verified.

Ukraine’s General Staff had said on September 15 that Russian forces have lost over 300,000 troops killed and wounded since the start of 2026 and over 1.5 million since the start of the full-scale invasion.

According to Zelensky, the week’s results were achieved as part of Operation “Vivaldi” in the Lyman sector and another active-defense operation involving Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces. The heaviest fighting is taking place in the Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka and Lyman sectors, while Ukrainian forces are also conducting operations in the Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Sumy regions. Zelensky gave no further details on territorial gains.

Operation “Vivaldi” — the Third Army Corps’ offensive around Lyman in northern Donetsk — was made public only on September 15, although Russian pro-war channels and OSINT researchers had been tracking Ukrainian attacks there since late spring 2026. On September 20, the Third Corps said it had liberated another 40 square kilometers and retaken several villages during the ongoing offensive.