Sloviansk

Sloviansk is the northern end of the Fortress Belt, so it is exposed from the south and from the Lyman direction. In early June Russia opened a new threat on its southern approach, seizing Lypivka and reaching the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas canal, even as the Institute for the Study of War recorded no other confirmed Russian advances on 7 June.

The northern threat eased later in the summer. On 12 September ISW assessed that Ukrainian forces had eliminated the Russian salient north of Lyman, with fighting moving to the Zherebets River. Pushilin's envelopment claim of 12 October therefore ran against the Independent picture. When DeepState more than tripled its summer tally of Russian gains, the cause was a reset baseline after delayed publication of Ukrainian advances, not any breakthrough towards Sloviansk.

After Pokrovsk fell in December 2025, Russian air power reached deeper into the Fortress Belt's cities. On 10 March three Russian guided aerial bombs struck central Sloviansk, killing four people, among them a mother and her 11-year-old child, and wounding 16. Russia dropped 264 guided bombs across Ukraine on 9 March alone.

The strike showed what life in the city under the front's shadow means: Sloviansk is not on the line of contact, yet glide bombs released well behind Russian lines can hit its centre. Ukrainian forces answered on the ground in spring, when ISW geolocated advances near Sloviansk and Kostiantynivka on 12 and 13 April.