Kramatorsk

Kramatorsk is the prize that Russian capture claims in Donetsk keep pointing towards. Pushilin's envelopment claim of 12 October came as DeepState revised Russia's July to September gains up to 341 square kilometres from the 107 first reported, because Ukrainian advances had been published late and moved the baseline; Russia had lost net ground in May and June.

Through the summer, ISW mapping showed the Russian approach to Kramatorsk stalled. On 22 July the Institute for the Study of War judged the roughly 1,000km front essentially static, with Kostiantynivka, the town Russia must take before reaching Kramatorsk from the south, still its unmet main objective. A June ISW assessment flagged Dobropillia, west of the main routes, as a new pressure point that could bypass the city's western approaches.

Pokrovsk fell to Russian forces in December 2025, and Kramatorsk moved to the front of the queue. By early March Russian troops were advancing on Kostiantynivka, on the southern approach to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, following the sequence that took Bakhmut in May 2023 and Avdiivka in February 2024.

The city itself came under heavier bombardment. A Russian airstrike on 8 March killed one person and damaged nearly 40 houses, as Russia targeted the rail junction that carries supplies across northern Donetsk. Two days later guided bombs killed four people in central Sloviansk, its TWIN to the north. The spring push then stalled at the Fortress Belt, and the city remained in Ukrainian hands.