Ukrainian forces are successfully counterattacking along critical sections of the front line, contradicting President Trump’s recent claims about Ukraine’s position, Forbes reports.
“Despite Trump’s insistence that Zelenskyy and Ukraine ‘are not in a very good position,’ Ukrainian forces are counterattacking along at least two of the most important sectors of the 800-mile (1,300 km) front line of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine,” writes Forbes war correspondent David Axe.
The strategic city of Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast exemplifies this shift. A mining city with a pre-war population of 35,000, Toretsk holds significant tactical importance due to its elevation overlooking key Ukrainian supply lines. After falling to Russian forces on 7 February, Ukrainian troops launched a counteroffensive just two weeks later, swiftly advancing back into the city center.
“As recently as a few months ago, the Russians had the momentum in their three-year wider war. That’s no longer the case,” Axe notes, highlighting the changing dynamics on the battlefield.
A Russian military blogger inadvertently confirmed Ukrainian progress when posting a video showing Ukrainian troops in central Toretsk while claiming they were only at the city’s edge.
“The crests decided to counterattack, flew in on 23 February in their American armored vehicles to the border areas of the city of Toretsk,” the blogger wrote on Telegram, using a slang term for Ukrainian troops.
Estonian analyst WarTranslated reported: “Fighting continues in the city center, and the enemy is losing control. There are reports of complete encirclement of Russian occupiers in several areas.”
The Ukrainian brigades around Toretsk—including the 92nd Assault Brigade and the 100th Mechanized Brigade—join other Ukrainian forces that recently repelled Russian troops near Kursk Oblast. Ukraine maintains control of approximately 250 square miles (650 square kilometers) of Russian territory.
The Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies explains that the Russian command has shifted priorities away from Pokrovsk to focus on “the adjacent Novopavlivka and Toretsk directions.”
This battlefield reality provides context for President Zelenskyy’s confidence during what Axe describes as a “disastrous” Oval Office press conference with Trump and Vice President Vance, who accused the Ukrainian leader of ingratitude for past US aid.
Read more:
- “Go back and fix ties with Trump,” Starmer and Rutte tell Zelenskyy after clash in Washington
- Frontline report: Russian soldiers on crutches try to cross the Oskil River—Ukrainian drones strike first
- Frontline report: Ukraine’s Vampire hexacopter drones cut the “head off Russian snake” in Kursk strike
