Donetsk

The Institute for the Study of War's 12 September assessment said a Russian position north of Lyman had fallen to Ukrainian forces. The salient had threatened the defensive belt protecting Ukrainian-held cities in Donetsk Oblast. Russian military bloggers reportedly conceded the ground, but no Independent primary source had confirmed the assessment.

For Donetsk, the significance lies in the approaches to the remaining Ukrainian-held Fortress Belt rather than a change in control of the city itself. ISW said Russia had made near-zero net gains since March 2026, after Ukraine contested the operational initiative for the first time since the August 2024 Kursk offensive.

On 16 March, Russian forces seized Hryshyne northwest of Pokrovsk, extending towards terrain assessed as among the last defensible ground before open steppe. Ukraine’s Operation Task Force East said Russia was massing reserves for a renewed push towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the cities anchoring Ukraine’s remaining eastern defence.

That pressure matters to Donetsk because the city sits at the centre of the occupied oblast from which Russia seeks to extend control westwards. On 8 March, a Russian airstrike hit Kramatorsk, killing one person and damaging nearly 40 houses, while targeting the rail junction that supplies northern Donetsk Oblast.

On 28 February, Russia was reported to be considering suspension of peace talks unless Ukraine committed in advance to ceding Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russia’s 2022 constitutional annexation of Donetsk Oblast makes any retreat politically difficult for Moscow, even where it does not control the territory it claims.

The territorial dispute remained unresolved on 30 April, when Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made permanent peace conditional on Ukraine ceding the 17 to 18% of Donetsk Oblast still outside Russian control. Donetsk therefore remains both an occupied city and a central obstacle to any settlement.