Russian forces are actively fighting in Ukraine’s east-central Dnipropetrovsk region west of Donetsk, military sources in Kyiv have confirmed.
According to Ukrainian army spokesman Viktor Trehubov, Russian forces have entered two settlements in Dnipropetrovsk—Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka—where, he said, they are “attempting to establish a foothold.”
Speaking to Reuters on Aug. 26, Trehubov said on Aug. 26 that Ukrainian forces in the vicinity “are fighting to maintain their positions.”
On the same day, Ukraine’s DeepState war blog, which tracks frontline developments, wrote on its Telegram channel that Russian forces had taken both settlements.
However, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces quickly issued a statement denying reports that the settlements had been captured.
“The Ukrainian Defense Forces have stopped the advancement of the Russian invaders and continue to control the village of Zaporizke despite all the efforts of the enemy,” the General Staff wrote on its Facebook page, according to a translation of the post.
“Active hostilities are also ongoing in the area of the village of Novoheorhiivka, where our soldiers are inflicting significant losses on the enemy.
“Information about the occupation of both of these settlements by the Russians is not true.”
The Push Into Dnipropetrovsk
Russia has already claimed to have taken several villages and settlements in Dnipropetrovsk, including both Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka.
In late June, Russian state media reported that Moscow’s forces had captured the village of Dachnoye in Dnipropetrovsk after months of slow but steady advances.
“Russian troops drove units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of the first settlement in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” Vladimir Rogov, an influential pro-Russian official, told Russia’s state-run news agency RIA at the time.
Since then, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed to have taken several more settlements in the region, including Maliivka, Yanvarskoye, and Voronoye.
In mid-August, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) stated that it had destroyed four Ukrainian missile production sites—including two in Dnipropetrovsk—in a joint operation carried out with the Defense Ministry.
Kyiv’s official anti-disinformation agency has since denied the FSB’s claim regarding the alleged destruction of the four missile production sites.
On Aug. 20, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces had overrun the Novoheorhiivka settlement in Dnipropetrovsk.
Four days later, it announced that Russian forces had also taken Filia—another settlement in the Dnipropetrovsk region—as a result of “offensive actions.”
On Aug. 25, the ministry wrote on its Telegram channel that its forces had also “liberated” the Zaporizke settlement, which, it claimed, had “improved the tactical situation of Russian troops and deprived the enemy of a stronghold.”
On the same day, an official of the Moscow-recognized Donetsk People’s Republic told Russia’s TASS news agency that the settlement’s capture had allowed Russian forces to encircle Ukrainian “armed formations” deployed in the area.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has downplayed the strategic significance of Russia’s push into Dnipropetrovsk, which he recently said was intended to furnish Moscow with a “media victory.”
The Epoch Times could not independently verify battlefield claims made by either side of the conflict.
In early 2022, Russia invaded eastern and southeastern Ukraine, where it occupied large swaths of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.
Later the same year, Moscow announced that it had annexed the four regions, all of which it now regards as Russian Federation territory.
Kyiv has vowed to recover the four lost regions, along with the Black Sea region of Crimea, which Russia invaded—and also claims to have annexed—in 2014.
Despite Russia’s recent push into Dnipropetrovsk, it has not made any claim to the region, which shares borders with Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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