On October 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky affirmed that the country's army had caused heavy damage to Russian forces in a counter-offensive campaign in Donetsk - considered the main battlefield of the conflict that has lasted for more than 3 and a half years.
In his daily speech on social media, Mr. Zelensky said that the information about the Ukrainian forces achieving some successes in the " Dobropillia operation" was reported by Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
At that time, both Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Syrskyi had a long exchange of about 1 hour about the situation of the battlefield in Donetsk and many other areas.
The city of Dobropillia, Donetsk Oblast, is located in the north of Ukraine's logistics hub Pokrovsk. This is one of the key targets in the Russian army's advance west of the Donetsk region.
Mr Zelensky added that the Ukrainian army is also defending in all other directions, especially mentioning Kupiansk, Kharkiv province. The town was largely destroyed and has been hit by consecutive Russian attacks for months.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on the same day that it had taken control of the village of Novohryhorivka in the southern part of Zaporizhzhia - the latest in a series of almost daily notices about newly controlled settlements.
Notably, Mr. Zelensky's statement contrary to the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin the day before.
On October 7, President Putin affirmed that the Russian military is taking strategic initiative along the entire route and has controlled an additional 1% of Ukraine's territory in the campaigns since the beginning of 2025, bringing the total area controlled by Russia to 20%, equivalent to 4,900km2 and 212 residential areas.
The Russian Defense Ministry also confirmed on September 23 that a group of Ukrainian soldiers were killed in an attempt to approach Chasov Yar, a particularly important stronghold of Donetsk.
Russia has been in control of the area since early August, when Ukraine was said to have suffered heavy losses in both manpower and equipment during the days of holding the Chasov Yar stronghold.
