Russia is assaulting the gateway to Sloviansk. Ukraine’s 81st Brigade is holding it nearly alone
Mykolaivka is the biggest obstacle between Russian troops and Sloviansk, one of two big free cities in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.
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Kramatorsk
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Take Lyman, then Sloviansk, then Kramatorsk: Russia’s plan is still stuck on step one, the Ukrainian military says
Russian commanders treat the town as the necessary launchpad, yet their infantry cannot hold ground inside it, according to the report.
ISW: First Pokrovsk, then Huliaipole—now Russia points its logistics-killing air campaign at the Fortress Belt
The 2025 version took months to set up advances, and this one is expected to move just as slowly.
Can Ukrainian forces save Sloviansk and Kramatorsk?
Sloviansk and Kramatorsk are the last big free cities in Donetsk Oblast. Can Ukrainian forces save them from a creeping Russian advance?
ISW: Russia’s long push toward Sloviansk gains no ground as Ukraine counterattacks
Its assaults across northern Donetsk Oblast produced no confirmed advances in the newest DC-based think tank's war assessment, an offensive now grinding into its fifth month.
Precision missiles hit the coordinates. Investigators ask who was still standing there
A new framework names the pattern in four Russian strikes—and aims at Russia’s standard legal defense.
Russia is bombing Kostiantynivka to rubble while pushing its infantry into it on foot
Artillery and guided glide bombs hit the city as small Russian groups try to dig into whatever buildings they can reach.
Russia took the cages off its newest tanks. The new Arena-M shield bought them a few minutes.
The Russians' new Arena-M systems shoots tiny projectiles at incoming enemy drones. But it didn't save a rare Russian tank assault this week.
Russians keep raising “Potemkin flags” in Lyman. They’re no closer to capturing it.
Scattered reports of Russian flags flying over Lyman don't indicate new Russian positions in the front-line city. Lyman holds.
After eight months, Kostiantynivka is falling. Why some Ukrainian commanders would rather fight the open fields behind it
Russia's first strategic win of the year is a ruined city—and Ukraine's drone-centric defense may not miss it the way it once would have.
Russia tried to surround Lyman. Now its own salient is getting squeezed.
Lyman blocks the northern route to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. Ukrainian counterattacks are protecting the city.
British volunteers rescue 30 animals from front-line Kramatorsk
Ex-Royal Marine Pen Farthing's Nowzad team drove 13,000 km to pull 30 cats and dogs out of Kramatorsk as Russia strikes the Donbas city daily.
A Russian tank division rolls toward Pokrovsk, adding major manpower to Russia’s eastern push
Can the Ukrainian 7th Rapid Reaction Corps kill enough Russian reinforcements to halt an offensive toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk?
Ukrainian supply robots are blocking Russia’s plan to starve Kostiantynivka
Ukraine's growing legion of resupply robots can prolong the defense of Konstyantynivka. But human soldiers are still necessary.
Russia strikes Kramatorsk daily. The city is putting its monuments out of harm’s way
The Donetsk Oblast city dismantled its monuments to prominent Ukrainians and sculptures, and shipped them outside the oblast for safekeeping.
ISW: Russia’s “Victory Day ceasefire” reduced combat but didn’t stop it
Day 2 saw Russian attacks reach Ukrainian positions across six oblasts, killing at least two civilians in Kherson.
Tanks couldn’t take Chasiv Yar. So Russia’s reaching for the playbook that took Pokrovsk.
Chasiv Yar is one of the last big obstacles to a Russian march on Kramatorsk. Russian plans for getting past Chasiv Yar are becoming clearer.
Moscow’s offensive has lost ground since it started — yet Russia’s top brass declared Luhansk Oblast fully seized for the fourth time
Gerasimov claimed Russia seized 1,700 km² in 2026 and controls 70% of Lyman, but ISW’s evidence shows gains of only about one fifth of that area, none of the city, and territorial losses since 1 March.
Russia’s Easter “ceasefire” stopped Shaheds for a day — and nothing else
Russian forces shot four Ukrainian POWs after capturing them near Veterynarne, Kharkiv Oblast — after the truce had formally begun — while Russia accumulated 10,721 other violations across the front, Ukraine says.
Russia paid 206 troops for every Ukrainian square kilometer gained in March. Last summer it paid 61 — expert
Russia lost 31,960 troops in March for 155 square kilometers.