Viktor Trehubov, representative of the Dnipro operational- chien luoc group, said that this was Russia's first large-scale attack on the Dnipropetrovsk region. However, he affirmed that Russia's initial progress had been stopped.
Throughout the summer, Russia has repeatedly announced that it has launched a campaign in the region to expand the offensive from Donetsk. In June, Moscow announced the start of the campaign in Dnipropetrovsk, but according to Ukraine, Russian forces have only just reached the border of this region.
Any Russian advance on Dnipropetrovsk will be a heavy blow to Ukraine's fighting spirit, in the context of US-led diplomatic efforts to find a way out of the stalled conflict. The summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska has not yet brought about clear progress.
Ukraine's DeepState online map on August 26 assessed that Russia had captured two villages located near the provincial border, Zaporizke and Novohryhorivka. However, the Ukrainian General Staff denied the information, asserting that it was still controlling Zaporizke and that five fighting continued around Novohryhorivka.
Unlike Donetsk and the four Eastern provinces that Russia has declared to be an all-out, Dnipropetrovsk has never been openly demanded by Moscow for control. However, the area has been hit by frequent airstrikes, especially the regional capital Dnipro, which plays a key role in Ukraine's industrial and logistics brain.
On the night of August 26, missile attacks continued to hit energy infrastructure targets in neighboring Poltava province, showing that the war was expanding in both scale and area.
The new developments in Dnipropetrovsk are seen as a fierce test of Ukraine's resilience, signaling a new fierce period in the conflict that has lasted for more than three and a half years.
