Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps says it has taken back roughly 175 square kilometers of Donetsk region territory since launching Operation Vivaldi on the Lyman axis, a rare maneuver success at a moment when Russian glide-bomb strikes killed dozens of civilians elsewhere and Washington pressed ahead with a controversial Russian diesel purchase.
Commander Andriy Biletsky said the corps reclaimed another 51 square kilometers during the operation’s third phase alone, bringing the cumulative gain to about 176 square kilometers and netting more than 250 Russian prisoners, according to statements released after fighting around settlements including Nove, Ridkodub and Katerynivka. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an interview with Reuters published Oct. 4, put the recovered area at 125 to 140 square kilometers and said planners had delayed the push until units were ready, a decision he credited with limiting Ukrainian losses even as Russian monthly casualties climbed.
Why Lyman matters now
The counteroffensive targets a bulge Russian forces had used to threaten the Sloviansk–Kramatorsk corridor, one of the last heavily fortified urban belts Kyiv still holds in the Donbas. Open-source maps tracked by analysts at Frontliner and DeepState show Ukrainian lines advancing northwest of Lyman toward the Zherebets River, compressing a salient that had supported Russian pressure on the northern approaches to those cities.
Ukrainian officials describe the fight as a test of whether combined-arms maneuver remains possible on a drone-saturated front. The 3rd Assault Brigade publicized a tactic it calls “Gryphon,” using heavy bomber drones to deliver unmanned ground vehicles behind Russian lines to strike logistics routes, while corps statements emphasize cutting resupply rather than holding empty fields.
Heavy strikes elsewhere frame the push
The territorial gains land amid one of the deadliest weeks for Ukrainian civilians in months. Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia on Saturday killed at least 17 people, including three children, Ukrainian authorities said, following larger casualty tolls midweek. Kyiv officials have linked the bombardment to Moscow’s effort to keep pressure on the south and east while diplomacy sputters.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Friday that American, European and Ukrainian officials held “constructive discussions” on de-escalation paths before winter, including energy resilience and security guarantees. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described the war as a dangerous stalemate that could escalate toward NATO borders if talks fail. Those warnings sit awkwardly next to President Donald Trump’s announcement of a framework to lift sanctions on Russian diesel, a move Zelenskyy warned could fund the very strikes hitting Ukrainian cities.
What commanders say comes next
Zelenskyy told reporters after visiting the Lyman sector that Ukraine is preparing a fourth phase of Vivaldi, calling the operation unfinished despite the measured gains. The Atlantic Council, in a recent assessment cited by Ukrainian media, argued the push has reversed more than a year of Russian advances in the sector, though analysts caution that retaking limited ground does not by itself alter Russia’s overall manpower advantage.
For now, Ukrainian planners appear focused on denying Moscow a springboard toward Sloviansk while keeping casualties low enough to sustain rotation through the winter. Whether the Lyman gains hold will depend on Russia’s ability to reconstitute lines under constant drone surveillance—and on whether Western capitals treat the counteroffensive as a bargaining chip in negotiations or as background noise to commodity deals that Kyiv fears will prolong the war.