Spring – Summer 2026 · Donetsk Oblast — Kostiantynivka, Huliaipole, Zaporizhzhia axis Theater
Spring – Summer 2026
Russia's bet on a decisive winter and spring breakthrough after Pokrovsk did not pay. Fighting ran at over two hundred clashes a day along the Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, and Zaporizhzhia axes — infiltration fights inside Kostiantynivka itself, sustained pressure toward Huliaipole — without producing an operational rupture anywhere. Over the year from July 2025 to July 2026, Russia took territory amounting to roughly half a percent of Ukraine's area. In May 2026, for the first time since autumn 2023, the monthly change in Russian-occupied territory turned negative: Russia lost more ground than it gained. Putin's own account in March put Ukrainian control of Donetsk Oblast at 15–17 percent, down from about 35 percent six months earlier — an advance real enough to matter and far too slow to end the war.
Commanders